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# I did not bother to look into why Miuccia Prada, one of the foremost designers of our time, is being cancelled just now, but I found a 2016 interview in which she anticipated her own vulnerable position
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/ne-stal-vnikat-za-chto-seichas-kenseliat-odnogo-iz-glavnykh-dizainerov-nashego-vremeni-miuchchu-prada-no-otyskal-interviu-2016-goda-v-kotorom-ona-predvoskhitila-svoe-uiazvimoe-polozheni/
- Published: 2023-05-15T09:05:52.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:36:35.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Interviews, Observations, Society, Pop Culture

I did not bother to look into why Miuccia Prada, one of the foremost designers of our time, is being cancelled just now, but I found a 2016 interview in which she anticipated her own vulnerable position. Jonathan Wingfield sent the young Tavi Gevinson, the stylist Katie Grand and the celebrated photographers Juergen Teller and Norbert Schoerner to the meeting of Miuccia and Raf Simons, and the result was a long, humane and informal conversation between two of the greatest figures in the world of fashion. I shall retell some passages that show how keenly the visionaries of fashion foresaw the rise of cancel culture.

Miuccia says that she usually has trouble with interviews because of her habit of saying what she actually thinks. But her thoughts and words are not always considered politically correct. She notes that she catches herself self-censoring, and that everything interesting she wants to express no longer seems possible. As a designer she does not always find the time to explain what she meant; and complex conceptual ideas are embodied in a single headline, which becomes a mantra. Miuccia wonders whether we sometimes feel that we have no control whatever over our own thoughts, at times in a good sense, at times in a bad one? One may not say this, one may not say that; would it not be better not to speak at all?

The whole snag lies not in the journalist's work but in what happens after the interview. If she wants to touch on a delicate subject, she can formulate her thoughts, but when a single sentence is torn from that context, stripped of all irony or whatever else, the statement turns into something different.

Raf agrees that he began to feel most keenly the dictate of how to behave and how to speak when working at Dior. There was no list of rules, but the pressure was felt constantly, and for him this was very hard and made him read less and less about fashion. He may be a fan of other designers, he may hate them, but one cannot talk about it. Hatred is, of course, the wrong word, but there are things you simply do not like, and that is fine. He sees no problem with negative reviews directed at himself; the problem is that he himself is not allowed to "be negative".

Miuccia draws attention to the quantity of comments on her work on the internet, clever or stupid, that arrive with a larger audience. The whole world is talking, but nothing comes of it. As a designer, I feel that we are always blamed very heavily. Why does nobody blame journalists or bloggers? Why must we be the only ones under investigation?

Raf Simons recalls that in the past he said things for which he was genuinely punished in public; he was upset, and then he thought: "My God, why can I be punished by some anonymous person who writes the most disgusting things about my show? And why am I not allowed to react?" Because you must shut up if you are a public person?

Miuccia dreams of a community within which she could speak freely, because it is no longer possible to bear this pressure. If you cannot say bad things, or things that may be deemed politically incorrect, how can you conduct a discussion at all? Political correctness does not allow one to be objective.

We have to be so politically correct because our business has grown; if you are small, you can say anything, something supremely clever, or avant-garde, or simply stupid, and nothing will happen. If you are a big brand or part of a large group, all your actions are automatically interpreted in an ever more moralistic fashion. And people in general are becoming ever more conservative; so the more superficial the impression you make, the less you are criticised. This censorship has a negative effect.

There is an entertainment aspect to all that is going on: people simply want to be stirred up. For example, if Raf were to come out at the next Prada show in my place, the whole world would be delighted! So you must be careful that your choices are not swayed by the growing need for entertainment