Prada opened its F/W 19 runway show with the Monolith Boots. Louis Tomlinson The Away From Home Festival Hacienda Susula Merida Mexico T-shirt Complete with an exaggerated chunky lug sole, mini zippered compartments for—dare we say it—storage, and the overall combat-boot vibe we all know and love, it was clear these boots were destined for fame the moment they stomped onto the runway. This shoe was not only present throughout the rest of the collection, but sister styles also debuted and later went on to evolve into several other versions including the oxford and rain-boot pairs (see shopping section below). Not that we don’t love the other iterations of this major sole moment from Prada, but the knee-high Monolith pair was really something else, and the fashion girls of the world clearly agreed. “The shape of the sole is so peculiar, and the tiny pockets create a totally new version of combat boots,” said one of our readers. Peculiar in a good way, of course, is typically what ends up encouraging the rise of any particular product, as it ignites curiosity and excitement in not only the wearer but the onlooker as well. This shoe is, according to celebrity stylist Law Roach, “so tough but so chic.” Thanks to the street style set, we’ve seen It girls and celebrities style the statement shoes in every which way, featuring, as Roach would say, looks that are tough but chic. This included easy dress-and-boot combos, styling the cool-girl shoes with jeans and a blazer, and much more. If the street style images above prove anything, it’s that 2019 was the year a new Prada icon was born.

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Milan witnessed a big change, too. Louis Tomlinson The Away From Home Festival Hacienda Susula Merida Mexico T-shirt Gucci’s new creative director Sabato De Sarno held positions at Prada, Dolce & Gabbana and Valentino before taking on this role, which catapulted him and his first collection for the brand into the spotlight last September. Buyers, editors and celebrities descended upon the Italian city to take in the spectacle—ask any fashion devotee without a ticket and they would likely have told you they’d give away their Birkin to have a front-row seat at this show. There’s no denying that De Sarno’s predecessor Alessandro Michele kept Gucci on the fashion map with his geek-chic sensibilities; an aesthetic that would define a moment in fashion history. Still, moments pass, and we saw De Sarno usher Gucci into a new era, one that places more value on essentials over eccentricities—a notion we’re seeing across the rest of the industry. A business built upon the customer’s desire to be seen in shiny new things will always have its issues. However, the thing that felt “new” this season was that some things just didn’t change at all. Perhaps the most noteworthy takeaway was that trends don’t seem to hold the same power that they used to. I’m generalising, of course—things get meta real fast if you so much as take a peek into the no-trends-actually-being-a-trend rabbit hole—but it feels as if creating trends for the sake of it could be a thing of the past. “The spring/summer 2024 collections have shown a continued commitment to 1990s nostalgia and the extraordinary everyday, where everyday items are elevated to exceptional levels of design and style whilst remaining chic and comfortable,” observes Net-a-Porter’s market director Libby Page. And she’s right. The market has experienced a shift of tectonic proportions in recent years where a genuine focus on quality over quantity and investing in things that last has become a priority for previously frivolous shoppers. The latest collections reflected this.