Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons move beyond the digital feed by presenting their Spring/Summer 2026 collection as a series of physical, held objects.
Summary
We are all used to the scroll. The rapid, mindless flick of a thumb against glass has become the default way we consume fashion imagery. But Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons want to interrupt that rhythm. For the Prada Spring/Summer 2026 women’s and men’s collections, the designers are not just releasing a series of photographs. They are questioning the very mechanics of how we see them.
The campaign moves away from the standard glossy spread and enters the territory of fine art. The house enlisted American artist Anne Collier to create a portfolio that reconsiders the relationship between the viewer and the image. Collier has spent two decades examining the act of looking, and here she applies that focus to the machinery of luxury advertising.
The result is a campaign that feels tangible in a screen-obsessed era. Collier presents the images as physical objects to be held and felt. In her still-life compositions, we see outside hands holding photographs of the new collection. These inner images, shot by Oliver Hadlee Pearch, feature a cast that includes actors Levon Hawke, Nicholas Hoult, Damson Idris, Carey Mulligan, and Hunter Schafer alongside musician John Glacier and model Liu Wen.
The setup creates a strange and clever distance. We are not just looking at Carey Mulligan or Liu Wen wearing the new season’s pieces. We are looking at a photo of someone else looking at them. The anonymous hands in the frame act as an additional observer. They reflect us. It turns the ad into a study on perspective and framing.
This approach offers a moment of objectivity. By placing the fashion image inside another frame, Collier and the designers treat the campaign as a material artifact. It is an exchange between the commercial demands of a fashion house and the intellectual rigor of a contemporary artist. Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons have long maintained a respect for these distinct spheres of creation. With this latest project, they allow the campaign to serve as both a promotion of clothing and a liberation from the typical constraints of fashion photography.
