This season, Fondazione Prada’s cavernous show space was transformed into a gutted Italian palazzo. The ghosts of former rooms were patchworked across the walls, it was all clashing paints and shuttered windows. Echoing the palazzo’s once-grand stature caught in a state of transition, the title Raf Simons and Miuccia Prada gave the show was Before and Next.

So, what does this setting suggest? Certainly renewal, revival, a moving on from the past. Backstage, talking to journalists, Raf and Miuccia meditated on the past and the present. “You talk about the world now, or you talk about fashion,” Prada said. “The two things together, in this moment, are difficult.” Raf went on, “In the past, people did react to world situations with the way they dressed, if you go to the 60s or 70s and further back. Now, it’s not directly a reaction [but] we feel like we should not sit still, we want to try.”

So how do you dress if you are reacting to the fraught world around you? For Prada, it was through a purposeful uncomfortableness, meaning not discomfort but a disparate mix of construction and styling. This was most obvious in coats that had huge shirt cuffs blooming out from the sleeves. Sometimes, these coats had the shoulders of other coats placed on top, like a capelet. There was also a big emphasis on the sou’wester hat, not usually a staple of the Milan runways, but in Prada’s hands the classic fisherman’s hat looked surprisingly chic. This was matched well with some chunky cable knit jumpers, which peaked out under skinny leather jackets.

The silhouettes overall were slender yet rough and ready. Some coats had a pre-worn effect, while certain leather jackets were creased and crinkled, as if worn for years. The cuffs too, very much the icons of the collection, were marked with scuffs and stains. These character traits were echoed in the accessories, with shoes laced in bright colours and wallets stuffed into back pockets, making it feel as though the outfits already had whole lives before hitting the runway.