The best vintage Prada pieces to buy online

In the year It seemed appropriate to include a piece from Prada’s Autumn/Winter 2001 collection, which featured shapes and colors that wouldn’t have looked out of place on Carnaby Street in the 1960s – an aesthetic pioneered by the late Mary Quant. This structured wool top feels just as relevant now as it did 20 years ago – a testament to Miuccia’s genius.

Miuccia Prada’s rich cultural references are present in each and every collection, and this one was exemplary. Crowning each look was a jewel-toned turban — some of which was oversized — in a nod to Prada’s global vision but also to its retro appeal.

Prada’s Spring/Summer 2008 offering is known to collectors as the ‘Fairy Collection’, with its cobweb light, silk-chiffon dresses and otherworldly motifs applied to prints (illustrated by LA-based artist James Jean). Dresses. This beautifully preserved sari dress is both a fairytale fantasy and a collector’s dream.

Prada’s hint of outrageous sexuality was more than evident in its Spring/Summer 2009 collection, which took siren-like beauty and confused it. A staple of Look 22, this artfully ruffled bustier dress is a lesson in effortless sexiness.

The house’s Fall/Winter 2009 show went down in history, but not because of the stock market crash. Miuccia responded with ‘razor-sharp clarity’, writes Susanna Frankel in her 2019 book ‘Prada Catwalk’. “There was a rough-hewn, almost rustic quality here that saw any frills, furbelows and vertiginous decorations giving way to heavy wool in mud-colored shoes and waders. Yes, waders.” That’s exactly how these short skirts are designed.

Prada’s chandelier heels have become something of a fashion unicorn, adorning many at the designer’s Spring/Summer 2010 show. In the age of Tumblr, they are immortal, untouchable. Although the linked pair is an updated, flat version of the iconic shoe, we couldn’t help but include this elusive find.

The spring/summer 2011 show was bananas, the potassium-rich fruit printed on peplum-hemmed dresses and bowling shirts, made into earrings (which Miuccia still wears to this day) and heavily embellished on this flapper-style dress. Dress it up as set for Look 29 – with sleek hair and raffia heels.

The geometry of 1996, the lipstick of the 2000s, the banana of 2011… Prada knows how to create collectible styles. A prime example is the now famous car print of the Spring/Summer 2012 season, a show heavily influenced by fifties Americana.