Feels Like Prada

I got so many lovely messages regarding my two last Prada outfit posts and lots of you were curious about the locations I shot the looks in Milan. Thank you for your interest!

For Prada‘s F/W 2021 campaign #FeelsLikePrada, the Italian fashion house came up with an amazing concept. The patterns of the show decorate buildings, houses and walls in different cities around the world. You can find them in Paris, Milan, Florence, Rome, Shanghai, Tokyo, New York and Hong Kong until October 21, 2021.

Left: Feels Like Prada – Milano – Corso Garibaldi 95 – Building artwall
Right: Dinner with Prada – Milano – Via Spallanzani – Viale Regina Giovanna (Porta Venezia) – Building artwall

Feelings – emotions and senses, intimacy and tactility. The Prada F/W 2021 campaign, showcasing the collections for women and men designed by Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons, is an exploration of the evocation of feeling.

To feel has connotations both sensorial and emotional – rather than intellectual discourse, it is about instinct, spontaneity. Photographed by David Sims, each image is implicitly a fragment of an independent narrative – yet presented in serial, laid side-by-side, these photographs form a new abstract story of their own, expressing emotion. Deeper than appearance, this campaign is about what feels like Prada.

Building in New York

This narrative will come to life through a variety of experimental activations during Fall 2021, spanning digital and physical – life, re-fashioned, through the lens of Prada. Real-world spaces and quotidian objects will be enveloped in tactile patterns drawn from the Prada F/W 2021 collection, alongside building façades also featured in the campaign imagery – objects and places that can be touched, felt.

Prada objects at the Wet Market in Shanghai

The campaign as a whole is a proposition, a proposal – positing a vision of a brand, intentionally multi-faceted, to reflect its complex and ever-transforming nature. It is that which – always – feels like Prada.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Sandra Bauknecht / Nadia Krawiecka
Prada F/W 2021 Campaign
Photographer: David Sims – Creative director: Ferdinando Verderi
#PradaFW21 #FeelsLikePrada #Prada

Do You Speak Prada?

PRADA REINVENTS ITS OWN CLASSICS FOR RESORT 2019
Established in 1913 at Milan’s prestigious Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Prada is one of the world’s most iconic luxury fashion houses. Contemporary art and society inspire its collections, which are designed by visionary Miuccia Prada, granddaughter of founder Mario. Miuccia is fashion’s undisputed trendsetter and mood maker.

In the mid-90s she made ugly chic. For Resort 2019, she went exactly through her rich archive to revisit her famous ’90s decade. In times when everybody is doing more, she takes us back to minimalism but in a modern and updated way – spiced up with geek chic athleticism and playful embellishments.

Many of the pieces felt like revamps of prior Prada classics: a quirky mix of chunky loafers, the famous «yes, they are bad, that is why they are so good» patterns, low waists, kick flares, and opulent brocades combined with leather polos, sequin-studded tights, plastic necklaces and trapper hats. Think of me, once again, it’s Prada’s inimitable way with texture… Miuccia has started a wave. More is more or let’s say more is less. Maximalism is not over, just different.

LOCATION
In May 2018, Miuccia Prada chose the seventh floor of the Herzog & de Meurondesigned Prada HQ in New York as the venue. The transformation of the former piano factory was the first project entrusted to the famous architects by Prada in 2000. It was a kind of a striptease of the existing building: all architectural elements were removed so only the naked concrete structure remained.

THE SHOW
The space was kept as open and empty as possible for the fashion show. Only one new element was added to the space: large floating panels reflecting the cityscape outside and thus transferring images of the real city deep inside the space of the presentation. In addition to the real image of the city, other images of virtual cityscapes were projected onto the boards for an intriguing mix of inside and outside, of analogical and virtual realities.

 

PERSONAL NOTE
I have been a fan of Miuccia Prada from the beginning. A Prada nylon backpack was my school bag and I always felt very strong in her designs. When I studied fashion design, I realized how advanced her thinking is. She is a true pioneer and with her Resort 2019 collection she got the ball rolling again. Is the world ready for a return to minimalism? Probably in a different way than what we are used to. Look at the manicure for the Resort 2019 show, it is minimalistic yet maximalist. It depends on the way of looking at things… as Miuccia says: «Fashion is instant language». Do you speak Prada?

LoL, Sandra

Photos: Courtesy of Prada