Prada and Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas have been collaborating for a decade, and whilst the best-known fruits of the partnership are probably their innovative architectural excursions – think Seoul’s Transformer project and the Prada Epicenter in New York – those on the inside track have, for the past five years or so, been exposed to another side of the creative partnership.
Koolhaas, his Rotterdam-based design studio OMA and the AMO think tank, have, since 2004, collaborated with the Italian house on Prada's catwalk shows.
Adapting the expansive interior space that is part of Milan’s Prada Fondazione in order to meet Koolhaas’s exacting design agenda, the shows are consistently groundbreaking - creating a benchmark in show design not found anywhere else in the industry.
Beginning back in 2004, the show collaborations kicked off with the men’s AW outing, featuring a relatively simple series of OMA designed wallpapers draped throughout the space. Recent years however have seen Koolhaas and his team at OMA turn the traditional runway concept on its head, in characteristically innovative style.
Earlier this week saw the presentation of Prada's SS 2010 collection in Milan. Designed to split the audience down two sides of an abstracted wall – which came punctuated by seven regularly spaced doors – the openings provided the audience with a fleeting glimpses of the models, whilst 12 projections emulating the interior spaces of grand dame hotels came splashed across the walls - creating a beguiling, through-the-looking-glass effect.
As such, in celebration of the past 10 years of collaborative bliss, we thought we would offer a peek at the best products of the OMA-meets-Prada partnership.
The first collaboration between OMA and Prada back in 2004 featured a series of posters lining the runway in the Prada Fondazione, Milan
A series of thirteen Fernando Di Leo films were projected onto the walls back in 2005 for the women's Spring Summer 2005 show
Blocky illustrated prints adorned the walls for the men's Spring Summer 2005 show
An interplay of mirrors and lights was used by Koolhaas to create a sensation of suspended time for the women's Autumn Winter 2006 show
Bright, airy and open was story of the day for the women's Autumn Winter 2006 show
Projected screens from Koolhaas, featuring images about the future of masculinity, for the men's Spring Summer 2007 show
Mirrors, chromes and pearlescent lighting for women's Spring Summer 2007 show
A close up of the brushed metal seating consoles for the women's Spring Summer 2007 show
A spiraling, fossil-like creation in orange for the men's Autumn Winter 2007 show
Another view
Mirrored floors at the women's Autumn Winter 2007 show
A series of James Jean prints designed to accompany a clover leaf-shaped catwalk for at the women's Spring Summer 2008 show
An understated underwater style theme for 2008's Spring Summer men's collection
Arrows mark the way for the models at 2008's Spring Summer men's collection
Models follow the curves in the digitalized, achromatic space for men's Spring Summer 2008
Another shot of 2008's interior space
A series of undulating timber seating islands for the men's Spring Summer 2009 show
An amphitheater-style configuration for 2009's Fall Winter man showing
Similar modular seating units from the years early showing for the men's 2009 fall winer show
Women's Spring Summer 2009 show
Similar to the men's show of the same season, the women's fall winter 2009 show held a more theatrical note
The wall pre-showtime for the men's Spring Summer 2010 outing
An abstract wall bisected the space for the women's Spring Summer 2010 show, whilst door openings revealed the models whilst projections of grand dame hotels adorned the walls
A head-on shot of the bisecting wall for the women's Spring Summer 2010
© by Wallpaper
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