Archive for the ‘Odds & Ends’ Category

Prada Book Event – Moscow Garage Shop – June 18

On June 18, the Prada book will be at the center of an interactive library experience at the Garage Shop in Moscow. For three days, the Garage Shop space will be transformed into a mock antique library, with a few surprising twists. Wallpaper printed with rows of books will cover the walls, columns of Prada books will be made into furniture and Chesterfield sofas will contrast with the modernity of the Garage space, creating an intimate and engaging environment to experience the Prada Book.

For the entire period, the Prada Book event will completely takeover the one of a kind art bookshop in Moscow. The show ties in with a major exhibition at the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, 100 Years of Performance (Version #3, June, Moscow) featuring artist Francesco Vezzoli and culminating in a performance festival in September.

The Prada book was launched in November 2009, and has been translated into six languages. The 708-page book documents the extraordinary partnership between Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli over the last three decades, and traces the experimental and groundbreaking work of Prada in fashion, architecture, film, art and beyond. It is the story of an iconic and revered brand that defies convention with every turn of the page.

Miuccia Prada Receives 2010 McKim Medal

Over 360 guests attended the American Academy in Rome’s McKim Medal Gala yesterday (May 26), as fashion and art powerhouse, Miuccia Prada received honors this year. The Medal was awarded to Ms. Prada in recognition of her exceptional achievements in fashion and business, as well as for her contributions to the visual arts as co-founder of the Fondazione Prada.

In the photo below (taken at the event), Adele Chatfield-Taylor admires the medal around Miuccia Prada’s neck.

The 6th annual event drew a glamorous, international crowd that included Miuccia Prada herself, Patrizio Bertelli, the Mayor of Rome Gianni Alemanno, Sid and Mercedes Bass, Adele Chatfield-Taylor, John Guare, Larry Gagosian and Shala Monroque, John Elkann, Pietro Valsecchi and Camilla Nesbitt, Zaha Hadid, Marco and Afef Tronchetti Provera, Carla Fendi, Franca Sozzani and Francesco Vezzoli.

Proceeds from the Gala support fellowships that provide both Italian and American winners with important opportunities to pursue their individual studies and engage in an international dialogue of scholarship and the arts. Funds raised by the event allow Italian artists to join the Academy community each year, and support an exchange program for scholars in the humanities that links the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa with the American Academy in Rome.

The McKim Medal was established by the Trustees of the American Academy in Rome in 2005 as an annual prize that honors an individual whose work internationally – most particularly in Italy and the United States- has contributed significantly to the arts and humanities. Named for Charles Follen McKim (1847-1909), noted architect who established the Academy in 1894, the Medal recognizes an individual whose work and life exemplify creative and intellectual exchange across the arts, scholarship, language, and culture. Previous McKim Medal laureates include Renzo Piano, Cy Twombly, Umberto Eco, Franco Zeffirelli, and Ennio Morricone.

Pigtails Are Back In 2010

Pigtails, those side ponytails that are usually seen on grade-school girls, are making a comeback in 2010, and Prada is helping to lead the charge. Pigtails are simply too adorable to ever be permanently retired because they are a young, sporty look, that’s easy to do (any hair klutz can do them), great in hot weather and keeps your hair from flying away.

In recent times on the fashion runways, Prada models have featured messy versions of pigtails, and most notably, Prada’s mannequins in high-end New York boutiques also sport the twin ponies. Are you wearing pigtails this Summer?

Prada Short Fashion Film By Steven Meisel

Marking the beginning of a new decade, Prada presents a dynamic, short fashion film by Steven Meisel. In the film, model Rasa Zukauskaite, is rotated 360 degrees on a raised platform in superstylized synchronicity that emphasizes the signature silhouettes of the collection.

Echoing the mood of the spring/summer collection the film undoubtedly finds a balance between sophistication and innocence, nature and artifice. The coquettish model is at once childlike and provocative, suggestively playing with her pigtails whilst air-kissing words through vermillion lips. A schizophrenic score by Frédéric Sanchez shifts between a summertime lullaby and contemporary electronic beats.

Using the Red Digital Camera a sequence of single-frame campaign, images are taken directly from the action of the high-resolution footage. The continuous filming motion allows for greater spontaneity than conventional photography, and creates a softer, dream-like quality to the images.

Stripped back of any additional visual references the spare, white background combined with close-cropping places the focus on to the rich hyper real prints. It draws us closer to the crystal-encrusted bags underscoring the intrinsic relationship of fashion to the body.

Three further versions of the film have been made for the Eye wear Collection featuring wide transparent fluorescent sun frames in multiple colourways.

This unique and inspirational approach to presenting the new womens wear campaign continues Prada’s commitment to innovation though the creative engagement of new technologies.

Miuccia Prada To Do Costume Designs At New York Metropolitan Opera

The Metropolitan Opera about Giuseppe Verdi’s ‘Attila’, is to debut in New York on February 23, with Miuccia Prada as costume designer. This will be Miuccia Prada’s debut opera production.

Attila, Verdi’s ninth opera, takes place in the mid-fifth century as the remnants of the western Roman Empire crumble before the barbarian invasions. The opera’s action is based on a German Romantic play by Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias Werner, called Attila, and involves attempts to spare Italy from the onslaught of Attila the Hun’s hordes.

Attila is one of ten Verdi operas that have not previously been performed at the Metropolitan. Its world premiere took place in 1846 at La Fenice Opera in Venice.

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