From Prada: a pair of socks about Tyrolean folk dress, 18th-century court fashion and the enduring appeal of a well-turned calf
Weirdly, folk is experiencing a decided style resurgence, via craft-knits and swooshing skirts and Sister Wife-style ruffled necklines. Then again, given fashion’s often counter-intuitive take on cultural mores, it’s understandable the industry would grab after the decidedly hand-made and human as AI tightens its grip on every aspect of the creative economy. Certainly, that’s the kind of impulse that makes Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons’ work so forceful and electric at Prada – remember their anti-algorithm collection for Spring/Summer 2025? You can’t boil the intellectual dynamic of that creative partnership down to a pair of socks – but these are pretty complicated ones, when you over-analyse them. With a drawstring top, there are nods here to the stockings of 1920s flappers, knotted over-the-knee, and to the hose of 18th-century French court gentlemen – well-turned calves, incidentally, were the six-pack abs of Versailles (those lesser-endowed even padded them). But with their sweet floral embroideries – maybe a lawn daisy, maybe edelweiss – they are most immediately reminiscent of Tyrolean folk-costume, which is something Miuccia Prada loves. She’s vacationed in the Alps since she was a child, and is, arguably, the most consistent proponent of the dirndl as everyday dress in contemporary fashion history. She wears it herself, too. All in all, they pack a punch, these socks.
The Prada embroidered over-the-knee cotton socks are available to buy now.