News feed
Fashion is quick to take a muse in the environment, but the relationship is not always one of mutual understanding. As we begin reconciling with the impact our built world is wreaking on our natural landscapes, there is a call to be headed that has crescendoed from whispers of curiosity to a resounding plea for meaningful change. But it is one thing to acknowledge, to believe and hope for better, and another thing to act. With its latest collection reveal, Prada redefines modern luxury, twisting its limits once again to reflect the changing world around us. Calling upon a rebellious icon of the house’s past, creative director Miuccia Prada introduces the new Re-Nylon collection with ambassadors Emma Watson and Benedict Cumberbatch as part of an ongoing partnership with UNESCO for ocean preservation.
In a landmark moment for the industry, the Italian fashion house proudly unveils a campaign that celebrates an ongoing responsibility to the world in which it inhabits. In the Prada Re-Nylon Collection, we see Prada’s commitment to a planet in dire need. Like the ocean, this series of accessories and outerwear creations boast far more than meets the eye. Transitioning to ECONYL®, Prada now utilises a regenerated nylon yarn derived from ocean and landfill waste. Through a meticulous process of depolymerisation and re-polymerisation, Prada Re-Nylon yarn becomes a revolutionary innovation.
Nylon represents a special place in the brand’s history. An instantly recognisable fabric that was once solely resigned to utilitarian wear, it was radically transformed in the late 1970s when a pioneering Prada embraced nylon as a core part of her collections. In recontextualising this pragmatic material, she not only challenged norms but reconfigured traditional notions of luxury and design forever. Now an intrinsic part of the modern canon of luxury, Prada has continued to platform this cornerstone of its DNA, utilising nylon across accessories and ready-to-wear for over four decades.
Looking to the past to inspire a better future, whether through design or action, Prada recaptured this moment by launching the Re-Nylon collection in 2019 and reacquainting the world with simple contemporary staples that hold great power.
This journey, in turn, inspires the 2024 Prada Re-Nylon Collection campaign, which presents an offering of timeless and eternal pieces worn by Watson and Cumberbatch. Luminaries of the screen and in their activism, Watson, a UN Women Goodwill ambassador and Cumberbatch, a staunch supporter of the environmentalist group Extinction Rebellion, are captured in a series of emphatic images by acclaimed photographer Willy Vanderperre. Their powerful presence, framed by the pellucid waters of the very ocean this collection endeavours to protect. There is no compromise of quality or beauty, but there is a message of great clarity. With this campaign, we are reminded once again of the part we all have to play in conservation—particularly in our consumption choices.
As of July 2023, one percent of the proceeds from the Prada Re-Nylon Collection supports SEA BEYOND, the educational program launched in 2019 by Prada Group and UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC). A project aligned with the Group’s passionate societal concerns and the value it has always afforded to education and culture, SEA BEYOND has raised global awareness around sustainability and ocean literacy principles, ensuring younger generations are armed with this planet-saving knowledge.
In 2024, luxury is not just craftsmanship or rare materials. With an ever-declining environment that has us struggling to feel empowered by what’s to come, the ultimate luxury is a future where we are unburdened by environmental uncertainty. It can feel like a problem that is far bigger than us—and nature is, in many ways. But there is always a part for the individual to play. Responsibility may not be a word we often hear with fashion, but no art exists in a vacuum, and it is high time we brace for the changing tides around us, especially when we are more equipped than ever to do so.
Change is not just necessary but inevitable. What Prada has ventured with Re-Nylon 2024 is a new context for this quest for change, one that calls on us all to learn, think, and act.
LEARN MORE ABOUT PRADA RE-NYLON AT PRADA.COM
