NEWS

Male, female; fact, fiction; still, moving. The duality inherent to Prada and embodied in the Spring/Summer 2019 women’s show is expounded in the new evolution of Prada 365, a cinematographic projection for a new campaign for both women and men.

Photographed by Willy Vanderperre, the imagery for the women’s and men’s campaigns are drawn from a series of filmic shorts, specially-created by Prada. These movies are directed and scored as feature films: acclaimed cinematographer Benoit Debie is the Director of Photography; the sound artist Frédéric Sanchez has specially composed scores for each. Five have been created to showcase the Spring/Summer 2019 women’s collection, accompanied by two celebrating the menswear collection. As with Hollywood movies, these posters serve as previews, of films released through January and February 2019 on prada.com.

Five female models - Freja Beha Erichsen, Gigi Hadid, Maike Inga, Liu Wen and Anok Yai - are characters named after Prada’s supporting cast of accessories: Sybille, Sidonie, Margit, Odette and Belle.

The male models - Daan Duez, Jonas Glöer and Tae Min - are in turn presented as masculine counterparts to the female stars.

The advertising campaign takes the form of a series of enigmatic and intriguing film posters, drawing their visual language from the moving image.

The images become frames and are presented as fragments of the original films’ narrative - figures turning away, seemingly captured in locomotion, without comment or explanation, gazes panning out of frame, in ambiguous aesthetic conversation. Frozen in attitudes and gestures drawn from classic cinema, in moments seized, their poses are half-remembered, part familiar. They are both reflections and refractions, simultaneously old and new. 

The implicit duality is made explicit by a graphic layering of imagery - another duo, black and white portraits as backdrop to the foreground action, a double-vision of each figure, images that are still but hint at movement. They are immediately reminiscent of the dual personality of actor versus the role they play, of movie star versus movie character. But they are also expressive of the multiple personae inside all of us in the cinéma vérité of everyday life.

Credits:

Photography by Willy Vanderperre
Models: Freja Beha Erichsen, Daan Duez, Jonas Glöer, Gigi Hadid, Maike Inga, Tae Min, Anok Yai and Liu Wen.