Mel Ottenberg, Charlie Porter, and an Anonymous Fashion Pundit Review Prada SS25

THURSDAY 4:22 PM SEPTEMBER 19, 2024 MILAN

This afternoon in Milan, the hottest ticket in town was Prada SS25, held in a sparsely-decorated warehouse where the clothes, as is often the case, spoke for themselves. This season, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons homed in on Mrs. Prada’s tendency towards “ugly chic”: tights as pants, insectile sunglasses, and more vibrant color than even Anna Wintour might be comfortable with, not to mention a “cyclops hat” that our editor-in-chief Mel Ottenberg adored. After the show, he rounded up a group of fashion experts to debrief, but it seemed that some people were missing in action. Did Dara and Hunter Schafer get stuck in an alternate universe? Maybe. Are they wearing Prada? Definitely.

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MEL OTTENBERG: I’m here with this anonymous person. 

CHARLIE PORTER: Do the anonymous people still have to say nice things?

OTTENBERG: No! 

PORTER: Well, one anonymous person is a critic. How does the critic feel about hearing what other people think before you write? Because when I was a critic, I was like, “Fucking don’t talk to me about anything before.”

ANON: I already know what I’m going to say. But wouldn’t it be so funny if I published my piece and it was just all stuff you guys said? 

PORTER: I thought the cleverest thing about the show was how it looked so fucked up, but it’s really just basics. 

OTTENBERG: I thought the same thing. It’s saying: “Buy a Prada sweater, buy a Prada coat.” They’re really classic things. You can tell what the price is going to be. 

PORTER: But it was a clever way of doing it, of making the classics look good.

OTTENBERG: Also, Prada basics are the dream. I love the movie Who Are You, Polly Maggoo? It’s giving that, but it’s not actually about that. That’s just like, bells and whistles. Also, the music was the best ever. 

ANON: The music was great. 

PORTER: I thought the show was fucking great. It looked fucked up. When it starts you’re like, “This is fucked up,” but by the time they came out at the end you’re like, “This is not fucked up. It’s really fucking clever.” Most shows would be like, “I’m so bored, I’m going to fuck everything up and ruin everything.” Whereas this show was like, “I want to fuck things up and play with your brain.” 

OTTENBERG: I think people will want to wear the fucked up, weird stuff.

ANON: People will definitely want to wear the fucked up weird stuff because it’s not that fucked up. 

OTTENBERG: Exactly. Like, the pencil skirts with the chains. It’s not fetish; it’s really for a woman who loves fashion. Did you like the sunglasses? 

ANON: Loved the sunglasses. 

OTTENBERG: Me too. 

ANON: The sunglasses were really cool.

OTTENBERG: Do you feel a 60s feeling today? I’ve been thinking about it recently. 

ANON: There were a lot of Swans references in that collection. It’s funny that you said it was 90s, because I thought it was very ladylike. It was all Mrs. Prada’s archive of clothes, their sense of their own history and the history of the 20th and 21st centuries mashed together. 

OTTENBERG: You know what’s fun about Prada these days? I always like it, and then I always think that last season seems old comparatively, because it’s really working like fashion. It’s something different every time. I really welcome that and I think it’s an important thing many other houses don’t do. 

ANON: She really knows how to use the tools of fashion. It’s always in the same place, the casting is always consistent, and the styling is always consistent. It’s never working outside of the bounds of fashion, which is very conservative. But she does so much with this conservative palate.

OTTENBERG: That lady mentioned the cowboy boots, which were very American. Were they white, black, and yellow?

ANON: They looked like Raf. They looked very American to me. That was the goofiest part of the show. 

OTTENBERG: Also, the painted-on belts. If you were to wear Prada—well, you are wearing Prada—was there one thing from the show that you would want?

CHARLIE PORTER: Okay, if I was wearing Prada, the one thing that I would want… we call them cagoules, but I don’t know what it’s called here. An anorak?

OTTENBERG: An anorak, a zip-up. What color was it?

PORTER: It was orange.

OTTENBERG: And if there’s one thing you could have, what would it be?

ANON: One of the alien hats, like the big circles.

OTTENBERG: Yes, that was an amazing outfit. That was giving Prada 2007 with the fringe and stuff. That was really cool. I really liked that outfit.

ANON: I think she had on the flame shoes too.

OTTENBERG: Wow, Charlie. You really got good pictures. You really nailed it. I also really like this outfit, one of the last ones that was covered in diamonds and mirrors.

ANON: That was insane. That one had a really good hat.

OTTENBERG: Yeah, it had a really good hat. It was a cyclops hat. The show reminded me of Smylonylon, a deadstock 70s store on Lafayette Street that I bought all my clothes at in the 90s. Prada was up on Smylonylon.

ANON: We don’t even have Hunter here. Where is Hunter Schafer?

OTTENBERG: I think we need Hunter Schafer.

ANON: Where is Hunter Schafer? We need her.

OTTENBERG: Is ScarJo even here?

PORTER: Where’s Dara?

OTTENBERG: Where’s Dara? I don’t know. 

ANON: Where’s Miranda July?

OTTENBERG: Miranda July is not at that table. 

GIRL: I just want to say I love the “Diet Pepsi” video so much. It’s like, the most amazing thing ever. 

OTTENBERG: Thank you. Fuck yeah.

GIRL: I was reminded of that because the hair is kind of the same. 

ANON: Yeah, it was.