Prada embraces slouchy elegance with new Dada bag





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Prada’s autumn/winter 2025 women’s show was theatre by way of paradox. Titled Raw Glamour, the collection explored femininity through a lexicon of contradiction – harmony met dissonance, structure wrestled with improvisation.

Typically, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons offered little elaboration, leaving audiences to decode which pieces best articulated their manifesto. But one accessory crystallised the entire proposition: the Dada bag.

Named after the anti-establishment art movement that dismantled logic and beauty, the bag channels Prada’s own compulsion to unpick codes of classic femininity, reassembling them into something stranger and more magnetic.

Kendall Jenner, right, in Prada's autumn/winter 2025 campaign. Photo: Prada
Kendall Jenner, right, in Prada's autumn/winter 2025 campaign. Photo: Prada

Rendered in white, soft nude, grey or black, it tapers delicately with elongated handles positioned a third of the way down – a subtle redistribution of weight and perspective.

A narrow buckled belt cinches the bag’s “waist”, gathering soft nappa leather into loose, intentional folds. This isn’t the prescribed perfection of razor pleats, but the haphazard beauty of studied nonchalance.

Prada’s creative duo have always favoured the undone over the immaculate, finding profound humanity in moments of deliberate imperfection.

The Dada bag uses belting to create shape and volume. Photo: Prada
The Dada bag uses belting to create shape and volume. Photo: Prada

Belting is hardly novel at Prada; it’s a recurring motif exploring body-garment relationships. Here, applied to soft and smooth nappa, it conjures ladylike sophistication, while pivoting between elegance and utility.

This is Miuccia’s particular genius – transforming supposed flaws into new standards of taste. With its ambiguous proportions and utility-inflected elegance, the Dada feels destined not for It-bag hysteria, but for women too self-aware to follow prescribed rules. The bag serves as metaphor for the entire collection – a study in restraint and release, order and undoing.

Clothes, too, inhabited this liminal space – rigorous tailoring met spontaneous draping, rugged knits paired with whisper-light silks, suggesting strength and fragility aren’t opposites, but collaborators in defining modern femininity.

At Prada, contradiction isn’t merely tolerated – it’s skilfully curated. With the Dada bag as a standard-bearer, this season clarified one truth – feminine glamour isn’t extinct. It has simply been deconstructed.

The most expensive investment mistake you will ever make

When is the best time to start saving in a pension? The answer is simple – at the earliest possible moment. The first pound, euro, dollar or dirham you invest is the most valuable, as it has so much longer to grow in value. If you start in your twenties, it could be invested for 40 years or more, which means you have decades for compound interest to work its magic.

“You get growth upon growth upon growth, followed by more growth. The earlier you start the process, the more it will all roll up,” says Chris Davies, chartered financial planner at The Fry Group in Dubai.

This table shows how much you would have in your pension at age 65, depending on when you start and how much you pay in (it assumes your investments grow 7 per cent a year after charges and you have no other savings).

Age

$250 a month

$500 a month

$1,000 a month

25

$640,829

$1,281,657

$2,563,315

35

$303,219

$606,439

$1,212,877

45

$131,596

$263,191

$526,382

55

$44,351

$88,702

$177,403

 

THE SPECS

Engine: 3.5-litre V6
Transmission: six-speed manual
Power: 325bhp
Torque: 370Nm
Speed: 0-100km/h 3.9 seconds
Price: Dh230,000
On sale: now

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The Vile

Starring: Bdoor Mohammad, Jasem Alkharraz, Iman Tarik, Sarah Taibah

Director: Majid Al Ansari

Rating: 4/5

Washmen Profile

Date Started: May 2015

Founders: Rami Shaar and Jad Halaoui

Based: Dubai, UAE

Sector: Laundry

Employees: 170

Funding: about $8m

Funders: Addventure, B&Y Partners, Clara Ventures, Cedar Mundi Partners, Henkel Ventures

Ferrari 12Cilindri specs

Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12

Power: 819hp

Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm

Price: From Dh1,700,000

Available: Now

End of free parking

- paid-for parking will be rolled across Abu Dhabi island on August 18

- drivers will have three working weeks leeway before fines are issued

- areas that are currently free to park - around Sheikh Zayed Bridge, Maqta Bridge, Mussaffah Bridge and the Corniche - will now require a ticket

- villa residents will need a permit to park outside their home. One vehicle is Dh800 and a second is Dh1,200. 

- The penalty for failing to pay for a ticket after 10 minutes will be Dh200

- Parking on a patch of sand will incur a fine of Dh300

The specs

Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbocharged and three electric motors

Power: Combined output 920hp

Torque: 730Nm at 4,000-7,000rpm

Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic

Fuel consumption: 11.2L/100km

On sale: Now, deliveries expected later in 2025

Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000

Business Insights
  • As per the document, there are six filing options, including choosing to report on a realisation basis and transitional rules for pre-tax period gains or losses. 
  • SMEs with revenue below Dh3 million per annum can opt for transitional relief until 2026, treating them as having no taxable income. 
  • Larger entities have specific provisions for asset and liability movements, business restructuring, and handling foreign permanent establishments.
2021 World Triathlon Championship Series

May 15: Yokohama, Japan
June 5: Leeds, UK
June 24: Montreal, Canada
July 10: Hamburg, Germany
Aug 17-22: Edmonton, Canada (World Triathlon Championship Final)
Nov 5-6 : Abu Dhabi, UAE
Date TBC: Chengdu, China

The specs

The specs: 2019 Audi Q8
Price, base: Dh315,000
Engine: 3.0-litre turbocharged V6
Gearbox: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 340hp @ 3,500rpm
Torque: 500Nm @ 2,250rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 6.7L / 100km
 

While you're here
Our legal columnist

Name: Yousef Al Bahar

Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994

Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers

Updated: September 11, 2025, 9:52 AM