Milan, 5 December 2017 - Coinciding with Miami Art Basel 2017, Prada inaugurates a new store in the heart of Miami’s Design District, and unveils a fresh interpretation of its architectural and retail design concepts, a new visual identity for the Prada environment.

Inspired by the city of Miami itself - fusing its signature Art Deco with the influence of Latin America - the store embodies a series of contrasts and contradictions that are fundamentally Prada. Influenced by the classical modernism of the 1960s, and the combination of sensual forms and tactile materials inherent in midcentury Brazilian design, this distinct and immediately recognisable aesthetic is reinterpreted, through the eyes of Prada.

The space emulates the domestic sphere, populated by original and unique furnishings by leading Brazilian mid-century practitioners, including Joaquim Tenreiro - widely regarded as the father of modern Brazilian design - Carlo Hauner and Martin Eisler, Jorge Zalszupin, José Zanine Caldas, and Sérgio Rodrigues. Their work of the 1940s and 1950s is the central theme inspiring the project - design fundamentally keyed to its surrounding environment, enriched by and respecting materials, and celebrating craftsmanship. The mood of these pieces, and of the space as a whole, is one of intimacy, comfort and reality.

The exterior reflects the precision and rectilinear fixations of 1960s design: the façade is distinguished by a series of dense white vertical blades clustered over large windows which, reacting to shifts in natural light, either reveal or conceal the interior. Inside, bas-relief walls echo the ‘Tropical Deco’ aesthetic of old Miami Beach in their intense, stylised foliate patterning: the styles are actually drawn from Prada collection prints, highlighting an aesthetic symbiosis between these two different worlds.

The furnishings of the space, designed and produced as unique pieces by Tenreiro and others, serve to define the layout. Crafted from Brazilian rosewood, each piece is remarkable in itself - but also markedly unconventional in this retail context, reconfiguring the space into a striking series of domestic environments. They are defined by the innovative design of the furniture, but nevertheless remain both harmonious and strangely familiar.

The black and white marble chequered Art Deco floor - recalling Prada’s own home, the historic Prada store in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan - is a Prada signifier still present. Overhead, a layout of slender beams across the ceiling forms part of a new image for Prada shops around the world.

Totaling 650 square metres, this distinct new Prada destination offers Prada clothing, handbags, accessories and footwear collections for men and women.