The season’s standout collections drew on recent history with ingenious reissues that still felt utterly of the moment
A nation of hypebeasts turned its eyes to Milan for Prada’s spring 2021 show, which featured Raf Simons’s much-buzzed-about debut as the brand’s co–creative director, luring a whole new audience. But longtime Prada-philes quickly spotted two archival prints from the spring and fall 1996 collections—reworked with screen-printed text courtesy of artist and frequent Simons collaborator Peter De Potter. It was only one of many cases of fashion déjà vu this season. Versace put a new spin on the Trésor de la Mer aquatic prints from its spring 1992 collection; Gucci reissued looks from creative director Alessandro Michele’s debut collection in 2015; and Coach reintroduced pieces from the past few seasons, including fall 2020. Admittedly, designers taking trips into the archives is hardly a new phenomenon. But usually, they’re poring over the greatest hits of the ’50s, ’60s, or ’70s. The spate of ever-more-recent reissues seems to tap into the increasingly seasonless, time-is-a-flat-circle quality of fashion amid pandemic uncertainty. The distinctions between fashion seasons have melted like Dalí clocks, the need for newness replaced by a longing for the familiar.
BY VÉRONIQUE HYLAND
ELLE