Miuccia Prada, Raf Simons To Continue Postshow Conversation Tradition

The conversations between Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons are officially becoming a tradition. The latest, to be hosted by Prada’s co-creative directors after the digital presentation of the women’s fall 2021 show on Thursday, will comprise an eclectic group of talents and friends of the brand: Marc Jacobs; Academy Award nominated filmmaker, director, writer and producer Lee Daniels; electronic musician and DJ Richie Hawtin, or Plastikman; architect Rem Koolhaas, and actress and artist Hunter Schafer. Each will be connected remotely and the virtual event will be moderated by Derek Blasberg, YouTube’s head of fashion and beauty.

The conversation, called Prada Intersections, is the third of the series, pointing to the designers’ curiosity and desire to open up to other communities to create a larger creative moment, aiming to challenge themselves with input from fresh voices. In this case, they will discuss the collection from a multidisciplinary perspective.

Last January, following the fall 2021 men’s show, Prada and Simons engaged in a conversation with select students from international universities and colleges, each connected remotely. Viewed as a sample of current and future creatives, participants were selected from among the students at academic institutions ranging from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology to Beijing’s Tsinghua University, School of Architecture and Tokyo-based Bunka Fashion College, among others.

This initiative followed the conversation held in September after the duo’s debut show as the co-creative directors of the Italian luxury house. The seminal September public conversation between Prada and Simons was triggered by questions posed by the audience in advance of the show and submitted on prada.com. It generated interest online, turning the 35-minute video of the runway presentation and the following conversation into the company’s “most viewed” digital event, as it logged 16 times the number of views compared to the spring 2020 show, the company said.

Since Simons joined Prada, conversations have become a pillar of the brand’s communication strategy, as seen in the Prada spring 2021 ad campaign, which embraces the conversation dynamic. Each image photographed relying on several cameras circling models in 360 degrees also sparked a conversation by posing a direct question to viewers and inviting them to submit their answers on the brand’s website. Responses received become components of the campaign’s ongoing rollout, therefore keeping up the dialogue between the house and its customers.