Gift A Taste Of Prada’s Artful World With These Left-Of-Center Sunnies

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PRADA. The very name of the 106-year-old Italian fashion house conjures up significant memories for any fashion nerd. Whether we’re talking about the groundbreaking nylon handbag that became synonymous with ’90s fashion; any number of Sex and the City moments (everything from Charlotte’s lipstick skirt to Berger’s rejection of a certain burgundy button-down); or the notion that the semi-fictionalized “devil” at the helm of a semi-fictionalized Vogue wears the brand exclusively; there’s no denying that Prada has had a grip on our collective consciousness for decades.

The brand has cemented its authority by consistently turning out subversive, intellectually-driven collections that don’t rest on any one concept for too long. Thanks to designer Miuccia Prada’s off-kilter approach to design and ever-changing inspiration (she told Cathy Horyn in 2014 that she was happiest and most excited when she has “new ideas”), items as disparate as a pair of Art Nouveau-inspired pumps with floral-motif heels and a neon-green scuba dress adorned with long, dancing paillettes are tied together by the brand’s overarching sense of jolie-laide.

The same left-of-center sensibility is present in the brand’s eyewear collection, where we spotted the perfect (premium) stocking stuffer for the Fashion Person in your life. A pair of tropically-hued sunglasses from the brand’s 2019 “Disguise” collection maintains the hallmark juxtaposition of wearability and kookiness, boasting harshly-angled cat-eye frames adorned with a camo print in camel and slate gray. At $380, the sunnies are a (comparatively!) small piece of the Prada pie, offering the brand’s signature eccentricity in a wearable dosage. These shades may not be for everyone, but for that fashion magpie in your life, nothing else will do.