In times of invented narratives and advertised lifestyles, the Prada Spring/Summer 2024 campaign signals a reassertion of timeless priorities.
Fashion is about clothes, within life, encapsulated in the living procession of the fashion show. Here, the narrative of that typically transient moment is amplified, extended for an entire season. This campaign utilizes Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons’ September runway presentation as a catalyst for an exploration of the ecosystem of the fashion show, its complex plurality simultaneously expressive of individuality and community, the momentary and the eternal. The medium becomes the message – part of a constant search for answers to fundamental questions, around the role of fashion in our everyday lives.
A sequence of honest and pure portraits by Willy Vanderperre, poised between spontaneous intimacy and elegant formalism, encapsulates the personae of each model of the show, 40 in total. Comprising both known and new faces, every woman is championed, afforded space and agency in singular portraits – a focus placed on her, and her clothes, addressing ever-transforming notions of femininity. Amplifying a dichotomy between the notion of the singular and the collective, these portraits are at once individual and part of a larger body of work. They reflect both the procession of the fashion show itself, and a wider dialogue with fashion as both badge of belonging and marker of personality. Prada reminds us that the profession of fashion is a collective one.
