Prada Marfa

Looking like something straight out of a movie, therein lies a Prada "store" in small municipality of Texas where the population just barely breaks 200. However things are not always as they seem, because while this store is stocked with Prada goods, it doesn't have a working door, or any way to get in the place at all for that matter...




...and that would be because this isn't actually a store, per-say, it's an art installation that has been around for years now but never had one customer or employee. Back in 2005, artist duo Elmgreen and Dragset put up this installation in the most desolate place they could find, to completely juxtapose high fashion retail with it's surroundings. They got the co-sign (and some free display merch) from Prada and built what looks like a normal Prada store in the middle of the desert. And the visual is pretty stunning.

Sadly some hooligans broke into the place only a few days after it opened and robbed the entire place, but now everything has security sensors that will alert the police. Since then the place hasn't been entered and the plan is to never upkeep the installation so that it slowly and naturally just fades into the desert environment. Pretty damn cool.

Apparently I'm a solid 5+ years late on this one, but after seeing the above image randomly on a tumblr, feeling a little perplexed, and them scouring the internet for information on it, I felt compelled to post.


-john-

Yang Fudong for Prada - "First Spring" (video)

Prada is launching their Spring 2010 Menswear campaign with this short film directed by up and coming Shanghai director Yang Fudong.
The short is very abstract and slow in pace, but there was something so fantastically romantic and surreal about it that actually had me rewatching the 9 minute video a few times. And the combination of silence and those great strings just ads so much to the experience...

"'First Spring' is Pradas latest collaboration with pioneering Chinese artist Yang Fudong.

Featuring young man gathered in Shanghai, dressed in Prada menswear, the black and white film portrays a timeless, dreamlike realm where anything is possible.

Inspired by the Chinese adage that 'the whole years work depends on a good start in spring', this bold and beautiful film represents an exciting new direction for Pradas visual communications at the start of this decade."



-john-