Showing her menswear S/S 16 collection alongside womenswear Resort 2016, Miuccia Prada engaged the industry in a discussion about the marriage of gendered shows. Elsewhere, toy prints, scruffy, lopsided sleeves and school shorts pointed to boyhood inspirations.

Prada’s decision to show her womenswear Resort 2016 during men’s S/S 16 catwalks (as she did last year on the A/W 15-16 menswear catwalks) divided opinion. Those in favour of blending the gendered shows praised her forward thinking; others argued the strong womenswear collection distracted from the menswear’s light-hearted playfulness.

Prada is joining designers such as Chrsitopher Bailey at Burberry, and Alessandro Michele, creative director at Gucci, who is forming a fluid dynamic between men and womenswear (see his Resort 2016 and A/W 15-16 menswear show). This movement is already shaping fashion, beauty and retail. See Liberating Gender for more.

Boyhood was a key inspiration for the menswear collection, with toy prints of bunny rabbits, racing trucks and rocket ships worn with ribbed school socks and grey school shorts featuring Prada’s signature contrast topstitch. Newest were short shorts in black and teal leather.

Elsewhere, jersey hems were haphazardly tucked in and shirt-sleeve cuffs were worn scruffy and long provided confirmation of the mood expressed in our A/W 16-17 Design Direction Kidult, where childhood sensibilities are carried through into adulthood.