365 Resort 2018

For the latest facet of 365 unveiling the Prada Resort 2018 collection, photographer Willy Vanderperre captures Kris Grikaite in the Milan Osservatorio, above the 19th century Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, its soaring glass-vaulted ceiling forming a graphic backdrop outside the Osservatorio’s windows.

Titled ‘Perspectives’, this visual identity crafts a series of striking vistas of – and fresh viewpoints on - the Prada Resort 2018 collection. Perspectives are constantly shifted, horizons reinvented. The tension between the season’s inspirations of sport and the elegance of the Belle Époque era are played out here in the constant contrasts between the collection’s key looks and the unique architecture of the Galleria.

The strict, artificial geometry of the iron and glass panorama is a potent contradiction to Grikaite’s natural, spontaneous demeanor.

The direction of the new season here is clear: a fusion of past recollections with perceptions of the future, to invent new visions - new perspectives - of the present.

Synthesis, the new incarnation of 365, invites a closer view of the accessories from Prada’s Resort 2018 collection, as photographed by Willy Vanderperre. These images juxtapose light-bathed, tightly-framed portraits of model Kris Grikaite, with ‘portraits’ of the season’s handbags.

Fresh faces and new sides to established Prada classics are uncovered here - two fundamental Prada bags, the Cahier and Etiquette, are reinvented, reimagined for Resort with new palettes, artworks by Prada collaborator James Jean, and a fresh exploration of texture and materials.

Here there is a fundamental synthesis, a connection between these portraits highlighting both the femininity of the woman and the femininity of her accessories. Side by side, they highlight a shared heritage - both the woman and the accessories she cherishes are fundamentally, quintessentially Prada.

Inspired by graphic novels, the backdrop to and influence behind the latest Prada menswear show, the first Spring/Summer 2018 chapter of 365 depicts the actor Joe Alwyn as a postmodern Prada hero. Against the imposing backdrop of the domed glass cupola and ironwork struts of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, Alwyn is captured by photographer Willy Vanderperre outside Osservatorio, on the roof of the 19th century structure itself. 

Establishing Alwyn as a new Prada protagonist, these images elevate Alwyn both physically, and metaphorically. He is a conqueror, an adventurer, an idol. A new, definitely heroic embodiment of the Prada masculine ideal.