The role of a skirt as a foundational piece of our wardrobe has always been present, but it became more evident than ever during the past season, and we have someone special to thank for it. Miuccia Prada has always been vocal about her love for this garment, essential in her wardrobe, her life and her collections. This season, the homage to this piece reached new heights with a Prada collection named after it, in which every single look was built around different types of skirts, proving the versatility they possess, from their varying lengths, widths and shapes to the countless options for combining and styling them. As vital as it is for Miuccia, almost every brand has a special place reserved for what a skirt can do for its collections. With this obsession more present than ever, we decided to take a look at this season’s proposals and choose some of the most interesting skirts from S/S 2027.
Miuccia once said, “The skirt for me is like a T-shirt”, a statement she has proved time and time again in practically all her collections and in her daily life as well. This skirt, from the first look of the latest collection, seems like the perfect representation of her and Raf Simons’s aesthetics merged into one piece. It offers yet another version of the garment in a particular shade of red, with a strategically placed and shaped black stripe reminiscent of Raf’s F/W 1998 collection, Radioactivity, where one of his most memorable looks, the red shirt with the black tie, was born.
In Denim Hysteria, Jonny Johansson brought together the excellent use of denim the brand is known for and a point of view in which historical undergarments and an overall Rococo aesthetic are brought into the modern world. The ever-present decadence of the human condition, from the past to the present, is translated into faded denim looks like the one in this skirt, which, mixed with the typical jacquard texture, the pompous silhouette, the khakis underneath and a light knitted top, embodies the complementary dichotomy of then and now.
It was clear that one of the best collections of the season would feature some great examples of skirts we would love to wear. Julian Klausner gifted us with his heartwarming and beautiful take on glamour, and with movie posters from Hollywood’s Golden Age being one of his most important sources of inspiration, it was only natural that a skirt featuring one of these posters, created for the collection as a print, would turn out just great. You can find these motifs on coats, blouses and dresses, but as skirts, they become as versatile and wearable as they can be.
One of the names of the season, not only for her recent win of the LVMH Prize but also for her position as one of the most important creatives among the new generation of designers making fashion weeks more interesting. Her transparent garments with glitter trapped inside were already eye-catchers in past seasons, and in this one, experimenting not with glitter but with pigment that moves when you move and can escape the garment, running down your legs, onto your shoes and onto the ground you walk on, was very entertaining to see. Frankly, leaving our trace everywhere we go sounds fun and exciting.
Luca Li proposes the everyday wardrobe as the starting point of this collection, where familiar tailoring, completely deconstructed, takes centre stage and gives rise to complex silhouettes that challenge our usual understanding of garments. This is the case with this skirt, where a generous number of large pleats on each side of the piece end up resembling dozens of trouser legs. They look bulky at first sight, but in movement, they are light and flowy, thanks to the careful choice of fabrics, which were intended to move harmoniously with the body wearing them.
In this collection, Chitose Abe decided to explore and portray the complexities of our inner narratives in many subtle and inventive ways, all well thought out, as we have come to expect from her. One of these is the use of materials typically used for lining garments on the exterior rather than the inside. This gave birth to pieces like this trompe-l’œil skirt, with an all-over fur print in a texture similar to what we are used to seeing on winter jackets, and a hemline finished with a strip of actual fur.
At Miu Miu, the other brainchild of the great Miuccia, skirts would of course also be protagonists, but this time, with the sportier, more youthful spirit of Prada’s sister brand. A unique and cool piece for those who get it, this layered skirt makes it look as if we had a hard time choosing what to wear in the morning, or as if we were trying to save space in our luggage by wearing as many clothes as possible at the same time. It combines textures, colours and styles to give us the best of many worlds, in the fun, ugly-but-pretty way only Miu Miu can make work.
Relatability, wearability and desirability were the three key words of the season for Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, and the skirt from, yet again, the first look of the collection perfectly exemplifies them. In white and also available in camel, two basic colours that go with everything, it is short but not too short, comfortable to walk, move and exist in, and features an interesting, artful and flattering drape that gathers the fabric on the hips as if it were irregularly folded paper. It makes it easy to relate to, wear and desire.
If Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena-Irons are known for something, it is how great they are at making skirts, aside from obviously being able to create a very unique brand with a visual language and style identifiable from miles away. In this collection, they mixed their usual mystical and whimsical language and inspirations with more mundane ones, like 1950s bowling alley culture. The skirt, composed of a collection of delicate fabrics, ruffles, lace, fringe and flowers in different colours, represents a very wearable but still magical way to carry the brand’s essence and combine it with anything from the simplest bra, as in this look, to more complex pieces that match the skirt’s energy.
Satoshi Kondo continues his exploration of the concept of ma, described as when “An intangible form meets the body and comes to life, allowing air within as it begins to breathe.” In this particular type of design, named CAPRICE, the protagonist is the layering of the signature pleated fabric in triangular shapes and different colours. The garment’s simple construction, built like a cylinder with only a couple of seams on each side, is essentially shaped by the body, the excess fabric that naturally drapes at the sides and across the upper part of the skirt, and the depth of the carefully considered colour combinations. The best of Japanese design and sensibility in a simple yet extremely rich piece.
