All images courtesy of Prada |
Welcome to a new era of Show Notes, in which a rotating cast of contributors from across the global GQ network will deliver breaking menswear intel, intrepid trend reporting, and amusing asides direct to your inbox all Fashion Month long. Next up: Mahalia Chang takes you through the Prada show in Milan.
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Prada’s spring 2027 menswear show on Sunday felt a bit like wandering onto the set of a Backstreet Boys video circa 2002. The perspex floor was illuminated, the fluorescents were dialed up to blinding white, and everything had that glossy, silvery, retrofuturistic Y2K finish. The screaming K-pop fans waiting outside in the steamy Milan heat—who all but broke the sound barrier when the members of Enhypen arrived on the scene—helped hammer home the TRL energy.
But once the show began, the clothes presented by co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons felt more late 2000s than early. As in, the silhouettes were all downright skinny. The trousers were form-fitting, all the way from the low-rise waists down to the cropped ankles. Jackets were tight, with shrunken hems flashing slices of midriff. With the exception of a single big sweater and a few regular-sized blazers, slim fits reigned. In the show notes, Prada described the look as an “exact and highly-controlled silhouette, refined and linear, constant.” I, on the other hand, would describe it as “jeans that require talcum powder and some jumping to squeeze into.”
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If you’ve been dreading the return of this particular noughties relic, you’ll at least be glad to know these weren’t the skinny jeans of yore—the indigo stretch denim you paired with V-neck tees and colored sunglasses to chug Four Lokos in a basement somewhere. Prada’s reinterpretations luxed the shape up in leather, in clean white nylon organza, in rich mulberry cotton, in ’60s-style prints. A stylish skinny jean, but a skinny jean nonetheless.
This revival has been quietly simmering for quite some time. Big and baggy has been the dominant mood in menswear for years now, but recently there have been signs of trimming down: At Burberry’s spring 2026 show last September, cigarette trousers held the line from waist to hem; Jonathan Anderson experimented with a cropped slim-leg jean for Dior’s fall 2026 collection; and ever since Demna landed at Gucci last summer, he’s been pulling focus to the body with skintight garments.
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Now, Prada is joining the fray. You’d have to scroll back to spring 2023 to find the last time Prada went this tight for its menswear—and that was still stove-pipe trousers, with give around the thigh and calf. Nothing as tight as this, and definitely not as much of it.
Maybe for that reason, this collection felt a little more Raf. You could still see Mrs Prada’s diligent work in the ’60s prints and daubs of industrial influence, but Simons has always played with the slightly-anarchic rocker look. In his own fall-winter 2003 collection, he linked up with graphic designer Peter Saville, the artist behind iconic album covers for Joy Division, Pulp and Suede. Those indie sleaze and Britpop vibes were strong at Prada two decades later, too, especially in the styling: sized-down leather and denim jackets, sized-up hair and shades and belts. Many of the models were sporting fluffy, flipped-up shags. Others went spikier.
The bags were also hit with the shrink ray. Nylon pouches were clipped to belts, bouncing semi-comically against the models’ hips as they walked. Shoes were slim-lined, covered in straps that hung off the side.
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For Mrs. Prada and Simons, at least, this wasn’t an exercise in nostalgia. Instead, it was about stripping things back. “There is nothing that I hate more in this period than useless design,” Mrs. Prada said in her pre-quote. “This collection expresses this concept. And this nothingness is very precise—to do this is far more difficult to achieve.”
Arguably even more difficult to achieve than nothingness? Convincing men it’s time to return to the harrowing days of skinny suits and jeans. Sure, some will be gassed—a few GQ staffers among them—but for the most part, regular guys may not be ready to slim back down. That’s not surprising. Runway shows always feel radical at first. But if any fashion house can make tight trousers feel chic again, surely it’s Prada.
See all the looks from the show.
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