For Prada’s autumn/winter 2026, there was see-through. However, it was not skin you saw, but more clothes

In Milan, sheerness, even when it’s biting cold, is apparently a thing. Or in six months’ time, it will be. It’s a curious reversal of looks versus climes that we have talked about before. First, Maria Grazia Chiuri showed unlined lace for Fendi, leaving panties to enjoy maximum exposure and, as a result, the expected derision. And then now you have Prada. The revelation at both houses couldn’t be more different. Prada has no concerns with the seeming preference for the reveal of underpants, even if they did lingerie in the past. What they have done is to use sheer, almost gauzy, fabrics like they would any other they’d use—as actual garments worn with others. There was sheer under, on top, and sheer between. There were used in any part of the laters. The diaphanous fabrics were treated like fillings of sandwiches—any able assembler would concur that meat does not have to be on top.

While many people are now talking about Mark Zuckerberg and Mrs seated at the front row of the show, and what that could have meant (Prada for the wifey’s Met Gala appearance?), we were more fascinated with Miuccia Prada’s and Raf Simons’s approaches to sheerness. The objective was, off course, to reveal, but not, as it was the case at Fendi, skin or underclothes. Prada is essentially saying that even in winter, the beautifully built layers need not be obscured by a clucky outer. A sheer car coat, for example, can effectively work like a beach bag in clear plastic. When your possessions are exposed, you tend to use the best and arrange them attractively. Similarly, if your well-considered layers are worn under a pellucid but solidly built garment, such as a coat, the beautiful consideration need not be blocked from admiration. Prada’s use of the see-through hinges on the tensity of the weight of layering and the vulnerability of sheerness. A transparent autopsy of seasonal layering.

There were, surprisingly, few winter-friendly outers in a decidedlt un-winter collection. While over the other side of the English Channel, brands such as Burberry conceived an entire collection based on outers for inclement weather, doubling down on outerwear as national costume, as opposed to Prada’s psychological uniform. To be sure, Prada makes good coats, but they were not the statement pieces this season. Instead of a parade of heavy coats, Prada offered only a handful of substantial outer layers. These were later taken off (backstage) to reveal more of the intriguing layers. In fact, this manner of presenting necessitated Prada to go back to the old way of model deployment. In a radical move for a major house, Prada only used 15 models (including an unnecessary debut from Bella Hadid). Each model walked the runway four separate times. Each time they re-emerged, they had either put on a new layer or shed one, revealing a different side of the same woman or character. It was an astute commentary on how we actually wear clothes in real life, adapting, changing, enjoying, as the day goes on.

Many who come from South East Asia think of layering only when they travel to colder climes. As infrequent or virgin layerers, they tend to end up over-doing it, and looking like the blur tourists that they are inclined to be. Prada’s sheer coats show how smart textile mille-feuilling could be, or how intelligent, even poetic. (Shout-out to the pleated skirts that looked scorched in parts!) They also applied the details first seen in their men’s show last month: the shortened cape/topper, the over-wide cuffs, and square-neck shells that Thai grandmothers love to wear, the suea kor kra choot. These were juxtaposed with Prada’s own predilection for the suburban housewives of past decades. The mid-century domesticity ushered looks that suggested domestic divas in a grocery run for salt, wearing knit tank tops with elasticised-waist (or, for the Gen-Zers, cropped versions to suggest that the hems have been tucked under bras) and mid-lfe bermudas or Sophia Loren-esque dresses for a rerun of Pasolini. You can really flirt with youth culture without losing the housewife soul. A global collage of femininity, both ordinary and extraordinary.