Science fiction bursts into Prada’s first fashion show of the year at the hands of AMO, and manages to cross Earth orbit to show off its best clothes.
The long-awaited 2022 arrives, and while many of us wonder how we are going to spend the first months of the year, Prada shows us the fashion show of the autumn-winter Men’s collection. It does not teach us arbitrarily, but it gives us a nod to what is to come, taking us to the future, but inspiring us in the past. More specifically, in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The Prada Men’s space show in Milan
Prada held its first show of the year on January 16 at its Milan mega-complex, a building that has it all. By owning, you have up to a part of the property covered in gold. Undoubtedly, a good setting to transport us to another world in which scientific discoveries and technological advances will make us live differently, even in our clothes.
AMO is an experimental architectural arm of architecture firm OMA, whose lead architect Rem Koolhaas is one of those star architects we love so much. His professional relationship with Miuccia Prada, a designer from the Prada house, has facilitated several collaborations between the two entities, from which we deduce that it is quite profitable.
The staging was inspired by the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
In order to show us the garments that the brand has imagined, the men’s fashion show was characterized by its special atmosphere, as special as it was spatial. An environment inspired by the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey and that we could see from the concrete corridor through which the guests entered the venue, to the models themselves, actors, many of them internationally famous.
A serious-faced Kyle MacLachlan gave way to the parade, leaving behind his past as Dale Cooper in the famed Twin Peaks series. After him, eight other actors filled the olive-green catwalk. Among them, Asa Butterfield, Ashton Sanders, Damson Idris, Jaden Michael, Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Louis Partridge. All this to end the event with the stellar appearance of Jeff Goldblum, you know, the one who made us have a good time in Jurassic Park.
Prada reinterpreted with Giulio Margheri the theater space
The concrete corridor, very well lit by some led’s screens, led the illustrious guests to a closed space of important dimensions. A place with zigzag corridors, illuminated enough to be able to perceive the cinema seats that the architecture firm had sought in a cinema belonging to the Fondazione Prada itself.
Giulio Margheri, architect of the project, explained: “The idea of the show is a reinterpretation of a theater space. It’s a setting for action, familiar yet surprising.» And so it seems to be, since the designed space leaves no room for doubt. It is an illusion in which the models participate, but also the spectators.
The result of the Prada Men’s show: a ship that led to the catwalk
From a neon blue tunnel, with an octagonal corridor, formed by walls, floor and ceiling of metallic trams, which allow light to enter from the inside, but also the incorporation of light bars at their joints; the actors and models of the firm appeared. A staging with spectral seriousness, which showed us that the future will be gloomy, but elegant. Stanley Kubrick would be proud.
According to the AMO study, they tested different ways of representing space. Ultimately they were left with a tunnel that continues from inside the “ship” to the stage/catwalk. Of course, the effect is very successful. This demonstrates the importance of colors and textures in architecture, since by themselves they interpret space, giving us extrasensory and, as in this case, otherworldly experiences.