Prada Collaborates With Sotheby's To Auction Off One-Of-A-Kind Runway Items For Charity
You can always count on Miuccia Prada to blaze her own trail, and that’s certainly true of the new Fall/Winter 2020 campaign for her namesake label. Rather than put forth a series of inert imagery to highlight the season’s wares, Prada has partnered with Sotheby’s to auction off memorabilia from the men’s and women’s shows earlier this year, all proceeds of which will be donated to benefit UNESCO’s educational projects around the world.
Dubbed ‘Tools of Memory’, this auction to end all auctions grows out of the brand’s belief that fashion has a duty not only to reflect its times, but also to shape a brighter future — an idea that carries much weight in light of the ongoing crisis. The one-of-a-kind collectibles include ready-to-wear pieces straight off the runway (think structured suiting, intarsia knits, fringed skirts, padded blazers and more), photographic prints, show invitations, set décor, and other ephemera.
Several items have already been unveiled on Sotheby’s website, such as a sheer organza midi dress, a vinyl edition of the show soundtrack, and the 3.7 metre-high Atlas sculpture by frequent Prada collaborator AMO / Rem Koolhaas. Further details will be revealed over the coming months in the lead-up to the official auction, which is slated for October 2.
To complement the bidding wars, the Italian house has also imagined a campaign that juxtaposes the covetable artefacts with behind-the-scenes shots of models lensed by Gigi Hadid, Kevin Tachman, Daniel Arnold, and Phil Meech (a reaction to the impossibility of a studio shoot at the moment), resembling an auction catalogue.
Watch the trailer below, and be sure to mark your calendars for the first Friday of October.
