Prada [IG] brand brings summer sand to New York City, in a ‘smart people wear Prada’ campaign, where plains of sand cover skyscrapers and even junior executives can enjoy a short getaway. The often blistering summer heat is trapped in the city made of skyscrapers.

Undaunted by such obstacles, Prada rises to its intellectual perch to offer everyday humans a way out — if only in our minds and memories. The Prada Days of Summer 26 Campaign lives between these juxtaposed realities.

Liu Wen joins Prada ambassadors Bella Hadid, Damson Idris and Louis Partridge in fronting the growing trend of ‘urban beaches’ in global cities worldwide. David Sims [IG] photographs the campaign with creative direction by Ferdinando Verderi.

AOC doubts that Prada is prompting an intellectual discussion on ‘cool roofs’ as a highly-effective way to reduce summer heat and energy consumption. But if any luxury brand wants to advocate for that inquiry, Mrs. Prada and Prada co-creative director Raf Simons are at the head of the pack.

Miuccia Prada ‘Titan’

Miuccia Prada was first on the global TIME 100 list in 2005; she returned to the list in 2025, recognized as a ‘Titan’ for influencing fashion, identity and culture. Anne is optimistic that finally we have found a word — ‘titan’ — that fashion and culture writers are using sparingly and only for those who deserve the title by accomplishment and not hype. Fantastic!

Prada Group 2025 Financials

Prada Group will not release first-quarter 2026 financials until its board meeting on April 30. We await the results with interest, because the Prada mothership may be gaining traction once again, based on the 2025 performance.

Yes, Miu Miu continues to drive the revenue headlines, with a 35 revenue increase in 2025, building on a 93% increase in 2024. But the grand dame herself had ‘only’ a 1% decrease in same store revenue in 2025, and that is encouraging.

Strategies from Founder and Fashion Intellectual Miuccia Prada, Chanel CEO Leena Nair and Dior CEO Delphine Arnault

Modern, intelligent, and influential women [‘brainiacs’] worldwide are increasingly favoring brands that combine sustainability, high utility, and women-led innovation. They are known as VICs and in 2026, they are in play worldwide.

While Chanel has shaken up the world of luxury brands RTW and accessories, Prada stands to benefit from Jonathan Anderson’s ‘Only Damsels Wanted at Dior ’ pov.

Yes, Fendi is climbing significantly among VICs in China — based only on our intelligence and not the Arnault family or LVMH spokesperson, confirming such a declaration — but Prada and Miu Miu have earned their ‘clothes for brainiacs’ status in China over many years.

Unlike Dior, fundamentally torn between their official status as one pursuing young influencers, ambassadors and VICs [key word is young], and Chanel potentially ripping the guts out of that Dior strategy with their all-inclusive hug of shared generational wisdom from granddaughters to their grandmothers, Prada Group stands to mine these connections.

Last week’s Morgan Stanley report was much more circumspect on Dior in China, than the esteemed LVMH head Bernard Arnault, who claims everything is flying off the shelves. His choice of words was unsettling and AOC is not alone, based on personal outreach.

Mrs. Prada doesn’t need any advice from Anne, but I would press pedal to the metal, especially in China — where Prada Group wears the crown that Dior appears to no longer even seek among established VICs. Chiuri is hot in China, but Fendi can’t catch them short-term.

Yes, Louis Vuitton and Hermès have big VIC followings, but Prada has a big opportunity in Asia and China specifically.

Prada must deal with Chanel’s extreme new vigor under Matthieu Blazy — just like everyone else. But Prada and Miu Miu have made relevant and sincere investments in China and around the globe to support the ‘brainiacs’, including the word ‘feminism’.

No longer spoken in the House of Dior as if it’s an illness, both Prada and Miu Miu are experts in navigating this feminism terrain in China and everywhere else. AOC also navigates that terrain in China with similar respect for Xi Jinping and his goals for China.

At this moment in time when right-wingers led by America are trying to dethrone women’s success by any means necessary, wealthy women are saying “not so fast, boys”. French women can argue that we live in a post-feminism era, but most accomplished women in the rest of the world disagree with their ivory-tower analysis.

As evidence of Anne’s position, AOC shares this late February 2026, New York Times article ‘Gathering Force in the Art Market: Female Collectors’.

With women now controlling more than one-third of global wealth, they are spending more on art than men do, data shows, and influencing what museums acquire.

Protecting the status of women artists is far more important to brainiac women, than some key luxury brands understand. Beyond the Times article, the Making Their Mark Forum came together March 5-7, 2026 in their inaugural launch by collector Komal Shah, heavily featured in the Times article.

Australian-born, modern-art curator Melissa Chiu took the helm of the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC 12 years ago. Chiu cited her dedication to bringing diverse artists to the museum, and she delivered.

That commitment is reborn with the exciting new appointment of Dr. Melissa Chiu as Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City, effective September 1. Anne’s suggestion is that Dior stop trying to pass off those often-dreadful book totes as high art, and get down to the focus of curation and cultural dialogue.

China’s Ministry of Culture Loves ‘Wuthering Heights’, Disdains ‘Dracula’

AOC can only speak for China here, but after doing a deep dive on how China considers ‘Dracula’ and ‘Clockwork Orange’ as absolutely depraved examples of the West’s decline into absolute decadence, we ran the same investigation through Vogue’s first book club choice of ‘Wuthering Heights’.

Yes, Emily Brontë's only novel didn’t make it onto Jonathan Anderson’s great books list — however that is determined — and the book was timed by Vogue with the Spring 2026 movie release. Pursuing the facts which is always front of mind on AOC, Anne now understands how and why ‘Wuthering Heights’ is highly regarded in China, unlike ‘Dracula’, which is very low-class.

Simply stated, Prada does their homework in ways that seem to escape the great minds of both Jonathan Anderson and Delphine Arnault at Dior. With all this craziness going on with luxury brands realignment, the best brands should ignore the Dior approach and study all the times that Prada/Miu Miu have exceeded expectations in questions of culture and creativity.

Who stays and who goes in China is an evolving list, as China prioritizes the development of their own luxury labels on a global export scale.

Simultaneously, young Americans are embracing a trend known as "Chinamaxxing" on TikTok and Instagram. This trend highlights a fascination with Chinese convenience, culture, and aesthetic, that contrasts with American economic anxieties, especially among young people.

As someone deeply involved in researching China, after Anne of Carversville’s door into China opened seven months ago, Anne is clear about the “why” behind this trend.