Prada Holiday 2023 by Willy Vanderperre

[Frederic01]

PRADA

 

[90sFan]

NO!
OMG, NO!!!!!!!!!
Are you sure this is Prada advertising and not a Tatler Xmas special (circa 2016)?!?!?!?!???!
what a horrific thing.

 

[amby]

Campaign video

 

[aracic]

From one of the most beautiful advertising campaigns ever to be seen in fashion, for which someone nearly died to get the right shot, to whatever the f*ck this is. Sometimes I wish I could just disconnect from contemporary fashion and revel in the past.

 

[MModa]

The first image of the ad campaign makes me think of photos I've seen in Macy's or Lord & Taylor holiday catalogs.

 

[Felipe Wiedmer]

From one of the most beautiful advertising campaigns ever to be seen in fashion, for which someone nearly died to get the right shot, to whatever the f*ck this is. Sometimes I wish I could just disconnect from contemporary fashion and revel in the past.

what do you mean someone nearly died?!?! omg?!

 

[aracic]

what do you mean someone nearly died?!?! omg?!

dja


vogue.ru

Glen Luchford's best photograph: Amber Valletta modelling Prada in a sinking boat

We had to shut the river Tiber in Rome for this picture. It’s expensive to shut down a whole river, but this was for the Prada 1997 autumn/winter campaign, so we had the budget for it. You can’t see them, but there are about 10 people in the water, setting fire to bales of hay covered in kerosene to try and make it look misty. We had to shoot it in the last 10 minutes of daylight, so that the colours would be just right. I wanted it to be more than dusk – you could call it the gloaming.

We’d painted the boat the right colour. Everyone was lined up, ready to go, about four hours before we were due to shoot. But right at the last minute, the stylist decided to change the dress to a red one. That proved too vibrant. Then the boat started to sink and one of the guys throwing the bales of hay in the river forgot to let go and disappeared into the water after it. I’d been planning it for three months but in the last five minutes of daylight, the entire scene descended into utter chaos.

Mr [Patrizio] Bertelli, the boss of Prada, was standing there on the riverbank shouting at everyone. When he asked me if I’d got the shot I said, “No!” and stormed off in a huff.

We went back the next day. We closed the river again and worked on everything we’d done wrong to get it right the second time around. When the film was developed it was exactly what I had wanted to achieve.

I’d seen two films growing up that influenced this shot: one was Andrei Rublev, by Tarkovsky, and Time of the Gypsies by Emir Kusturica. Both have religious scenes of people floating down the river in the mist. I decided to do a homage to both films. I was also thinking a lot about Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven. (If I were to choose a soundtrack for this shot, it would probably be Soave sia il vento from Così fan tutte.)

Back then, film stock was really oversaturated, because it was developed in the amateur market, so you gotthese bright, vivid colours. I was trying to achieve the opposite – I wanted everything to be underexposed and muted, sombre.

We found tiny lights used for car shots in movies to illuminate people’s faces. We had just one, attached to the side of the boat; that was our only lighting. To get the shot, we had to aim for this one moment when there was a perfect balance between the strength of that artificial light and the strength of the dying sun. Two months later, I discovered Photoshop, with which I could have done the whole thing in just two minutes.

A photo from this shoot ended up on a Giles Deacon dress. The Museum of Modern Art and the V&A had already asked to have the photos in their permanent collections, so they were elevated above just magazine shots.

What you’re looking for, working with anyone from Beyoncé to David Beckham to Björk, is a moment of spontaneity. You don’t want the photograph to feel staged. To do that you have to read each situation.

Over the years you develop a bunch of skills. With this picture, Amber Valletta, the model, had been sitting so still for so long, I think she got a kind of rigor mortis. She was probably also anxiously hoping the boat wasn’t going to fill with water. Looking at some of the things I’ve done, I remember the technical difficulties, the problems. But you create problems to overcome the boredom. Your parameter is basically a girl in a dress, and you do it every day. So you have to find a way to make it more interesting.

theguardian.com

 

[Felipe Wiedmer]

oh wow.

So you have to find a way to make it more interesting.

I guess that's a way to put it lmao.

 

[FiLReD]

they look all very stiff and uncomfortable in the video.
it's a mystery to me how Prada has managed to increase it's sales lately with mostly hot air.

 

[Lola701]

they look all very stiff and uncomfortable in the video.
it's a mystery to me how Prada has managed to increase it's sales lately with mostly hot air.

The mystery is pretty simple: a triangle logo in every piece of clothing and accessories possible.

 

[MaraPiovani]

Its Willy touch, he did the same with Dior and CK…

 

[lhhbl]

it screams swarowski

 

[90sFan]

It screams cheapness

 

[Urban Stylin]

Why do the holiday campaigns look cheap

 

[GivenchyHomme]

This just arrived in my email from some fast fashion store.



Prada via Frederic01

 

[Toni Ahlgren]

It's a wonderful story but did they really need Tiber? Judging by the result, any decent sized pool of water would have been sufficient.

 

[vogue28]

More from the campaign starring Maya Hawke, Damson Idris, Louis Partridge and Kim Tae-Ri:

 

[vogue28]

Given the state of Prada's campaign imagery nowadays, I don't exactly hate this. For me, Maya Hawke could've handled this campaign on her lonesome.

 

[90sFan]

The new low.

 

[prylvi]

More from the campaign
Carlijn Jacobs - Photographer
Olivier Rizzo - Fashion Editor/Stylist
Ashley Brokaw - Casting Director

Prada