A look at Linea Rossa
Most of us have seen the red stripe and now know it represents Prada’s sportwear line. This is something that was less commonly know a few years ago, especially by our younger audience. Prada sport originally ran from 1995 till the mid noughties meaning a lot of us were still children when the sports line was at its most prevalent. The relevance of Prada Sport in todays fashion landscape has never been clearer. The increase of vintage Prada Sport on the likes of Depop and Vestiaire Collective in more recent times make that obvious. Luckily for us Prada Sport has gradually been making its come back since 2018.
In 2018 Miuccia Prada hinted at the return of the sought after Prada Sport, or Prada Linea Rossa, as it’s often called. The 2018 collection nodded to the Prada Linea Rossa of old, with heavy use of nylon, technical fabric and the red rubber branding, which appeared half way through the show. Prada Linea Rossa brings together some of Prada’s brutal beauty along side fabrics and functionality of an outdoors brand, but created for city life. Making it possibly more relevant today than it’s ever been before.
Prada were there at the beginning of the ath-leisure phenomena, when they released their iconic lightweight nylon backpack in 1985, 10 years before Prada Sport became its own collection. In a world before jogger pants and sneakers at the office, this was a revolutionary idea in fashion. Miuccia Prada later talked about wanting to combine the industrial way of doing things with artisanal tradition. This seems to have been the ethos for Prada Linea Rossa since then. This little obsession later unveiled itself throughout the 90s with Pradas use of industrial nylon. It was labeled ‘wrong chic’ at the time, due to its unusual use of fabrics and styles that heavily went against the grain of what was considered ‘chic’ at the time.
In the mid 90s there was also a huge revolution for Prada itself, launching its first mens ready-to-wear collection, with Neil Barrett at the helm. The mens collection eventually lead Prada to open their first Menswear only store in 1998. Prada aimed to bring sports fabrication into tailoring and tailoring design into sports. This lead to the creation of Prada Sport as its own entity in 1998.
Having a Sports department to the brand was hardly revolutionary at the time for a luxury brand, but how Prada conceptualised their Sports line was a step above other brands. Other brands created ‘Sports collections’ that were traditional Sportswear pieces with logo heavy designs added to them. It was a safe bet for most brands, with low cost and high margin, it was an easy move. Something Prada Sport did not intend to do was play-it-safe. Prada went in heavy, recruiting help from the well know mountaineering fabric brand, GORE-TEX. This isn’t something to be taken lightly as GORE-TEX set their own standards for how companies use their fabric. Just to use their fabric means adhering to a book full of rules that non-mountaineering brands would not be accustomed to or yet alone understand. Prada Linea Rossa had created the first wave of technical, practical and fashionable city-wear. Prada Sport was the place to go for “metropolitan garments” with the substance of “technical mountain clothes” - in the brands own words.
In recent times, Raf Simons has been taken on as the co-creative director and collaborator at Prada. It’s expected that he will bring his concepts of beauty and emotion into the Prada mainline. As always with any sub-line we can imagine this will trickle through to Prada Sport. The mixing of functionality and beauty sets Prada Sport up to be a mainstay in the modern day consumers wardrobe.
All of the personality and innovation that Prada Line Rossa started with seems to be returning in the current collections. The use of GORE-TEX Pro, 3L Nylon and the monochrome makeup, that is so synonymous with Prada Sport of old, have all made a come back. Since the return, notable fashion conscious celebrities such as Kanye West, ASAP Rocky and Jake Gyllenhaal have all been spotted wearing the red rubber stripe. We all know too well that Prada comes with a hefty price tag, along with other designer brands of this caliber, but Prada Sport is one of the most understandable. With no compromise on quality, the Linea Rossa pieces you buy are going to last years. It’s clear from all the vintage or archive pieces floating around today from the mid 90s that this stuff is made to last. This seems much more than a commercial move from the luxury house.
It is a statement from Prada, a reminder, style with substance is what they do best.
Written by BenGreenie15 for NCLGallery