Prada wants to change the conversation away from aggression, toward gentleness

MILAN (AP) — With global tensions escalating, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons want to change the conversation to something gentle, calm and nice with their menswear collection for next summer, previewed during Milan Fashion Week on Sunday.

“We tried to make a change of tone, from powerful to gentle, calm,’’ Prada said after the show. “Basically, the opposite of aggression, power, nastiness.’’

“Sometimes it is good to reflect, and be a bit more calm,’’ added Simons, her co-creative director.

In that vein, the pair’s latest menswear collection recalled childish innocence, opening with short shorts that were more precisely elasticized briefs, with pleated pockets, worn with a sturdy, sure-footed shoe and black sock and a crisp white buttoned-down shirt with a naive print of a sun and waves.

These panty-shorts were paired also with leather coats, long cotton shirts or fringed knitwear that give men access to the pant-less look already embraced by some female celebrities.

A more serious double-breasted suit was worn with the sleeves pushed up in a get-to-work gesture layered over track jackets. Track pants with a side stripe or straight, cropped cotton trousers otherwise anchored the looks with leather jackets, car coats or knitwear.

Urban looks ensembles paired with backpacks and flip-flops, on the verge of the getaway. Light, summer looks were finished with loafers. Nothing was completely office, and nothing was completely beach. The silhouette was deliberately unstructured, and the color palette broad and undefined.

Gray, black, khaki and navy were offset by red, sky blue, lime green and turquoise and purple, monochromes mixing casually, as if to say, any way you want.

“We wanted everything to be human in its dimension, to be light and fresh and colorful,’’ Simons said.

There was humor, even whimsy, in bright cone-shaped woven raffia hats that recalled a shuttlecock, some with strands of raffia feathering over the eyes as if a shade. In the spirit of change, the showroom was left deliberately raw, with concrete and orange beams exposed and sunlight streaming through the high windows. Childlike daisy-shaped rugs were the only decoration.

While the colorful headgear and floral accents put a smile on people’s faces, news that the U.S. had entered Israel’s war with Iran on Sunday cast a somber mood.

“We are always very aware of that,’’ Prada said. “Good luck to everyone.’’

Outside the Prada Foundation showroom, hundreds of fans screamed for the arrival of Asian pop group TransfOrmProject, South Korean actor Lee Do-hyun and Japanese singer Sana. Also on hand were English-Ghanaian rapper Stormzy, NBA star Anthony Edwards and actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Harris Dickinson.

A model wears a creation as part of the men's Prada Spring-Summer 2026 collection, that was presented in Milan, Italy, Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

A model wears a creation as part of the men's Prada Spring-Summer 2026 collection, that was presented in Milan, Italy, Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Models wear creations as part of the men's Prada Spring-Summer 2026 collection, that was presented in Milan, Italy, Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

A model wears a creation as part of the men's Prada Spring-Summer 2026 collection, that was presented in Milan, Italy, Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Models wear creations as part of the men's Prada Spring-Summer 2026 collection, that was presented in Milan, Italy, Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

MIAMI (AP) — Some oil vessels are diverting away from Venezuela after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened a “blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving the South American country, a dramatic escalation in the White House’s pressure campaign on leader Nicolás Maduro.

Trump said Tuesday on social media, in all caps, that he is ordering a "total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers” into and out of Venezuela, a move that threatens to choke off revenue from the world's largest oil reserves that are key to Maduro's grip on power.

It’s not clear exactly what Trump meant by his threats. U.S. sanctions adopted during his first administration make it illegal for Americans to purchase Venezuela’s crude oil without a license from the Treasury Department.

Additionally, hundreds of ships themselves have been sanctioned — part of a massive shadow fleet of often aging vessels that has proliferated in recent years to transport oil on behalf of Iran, Russia, Venezuela and other U.S. adversaries under sanctions.

At least 30 vessels under sanctions are navigating near Venezuela, according to Windward, a maritime intelligence firm that helps U.S. officials target the shadow fleet. A few have started to change their course, perhaps fearing they could face the same fate as the Skipper, a sanctioned vessel seized by U.S. forces last week near Venezuela.

“It’s quite clear that this has disrupted energy flows to and from Venezuela,” said Michelle Wiese Bockmann, a senior analyst at Windward. "Every hour when we’re tracking these vessels, we are seeing tankers that are deviating, loitering or changing their behavior.”

Among those is the Hyperion, which had been sailing toward the Jose port in Venezuela before doing a 90-degree turn early Wednesday and starting to head north away from the South American mainland.

The vessel, previously part of Russia’s state-owned shipping fleet, was one of 173 sanctioned in the final days of the Biden administration for allegedly facilitating Russian oil sales in violation of sanctions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Following the penalties, the vessel changed its flag from the Comoros to Gambia. But the West African nation deleted Hyperion — along with dozens of other vessels — from its privately run ship registry in November for allegedly using false certificates claiming to have been issued by its maritime authority.

The vessel’s ownership also is obfuscated under multiple layers of offshore companies, some of them listed in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

“It’s just screaming that it’s in a position to be seized,” Wiese Bockmann said.

Since the first Trump administration imposed punishing oil sanctions on Venezuela in 2017, Maduro’s government has boosted its reliance on a network of rogue tankers to smuggle a growing share of the roughly 900,000 barrels of oil per day that the OPEC nation produces.

Sanctioned tankers carried about 18% of Venezuela’s international shipments during the second half of this year, up from 6% in the first half of the year, according to Jim Burkhard, global head of oil markets and mobility at S&P Global Energy.

Burkhard said that while supplies to China, the main destination for most Venezuelan oil, could be affected, he doesn't expect any major disruption to oil markets.

“Volatility or uncertainty around Venezuela is not new, it’s not a shock,” he said. Markets also react more when supplies of oil are scarce, and “the market today is not tight. There’s plenty of oil.”

Unaffected for now is the roughly 143,000 barrels per day of Venezuelan heavy crude sent to U.S. refineries along the Gulf coast, much of it transported by Chevron, which has a waiver to operate in Venezuela.

“Chevron’s operations in Venezuela continue without disruption and in full compliance with laws and regulations applicable to its business, as well as the sanctions frameworks provided for by the U.S. government," spokesman Bill Turenne said.

Still, for the industry's rogue actors, Trump's threat of a blockade represents a paradigm shift.

“There are already ships that have decided not to leave Venezuela for fear of being seized, and there are also ships headed to Venezuela to load crude oil that decided to turn back," said Francisco Monaldi, a Venezuelan oil expert at Rice University in Houston.

That's good news for the oceans, where hundreds of vessels, many without insurance and poorly maintained, were a constant menace.

"Many of these are no more than floating rust buckets," said Wiese Bockmann, the Windward analyst. "So irrespective of the sanctions and the geopolitical reasons for their being targeted, it is a good thing to have a strategy to deal with them and to remove them from trading.”

Associated Press writer Michael Biesecker and Michelle L. Price in Washington, Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, and David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, contributed to this report.

President Nicolas Maduro addresses supporters during a rally marking the anniversary of the Battle of Santa Ines, which took place during Venezuela's 19th-century Federal War, in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)