Rem Koolhaas of OMA for PRADA F/W 2010
Rem Koolhaas has been granted the unique honor of doing everything Prada (including Miu Miu) the past few years, or maybe it’s Prada’s honor? Anyhow, either way we have been given, as a result, consistent bi-products of fashion and architecture married together. But, like most things architectural it can go over over people’s heads. In architecture school I struggled with one thing…process, I really just don’t show it, I personally think it’s the end result that matters, who’s really gonna see and care about what it took to get there. Yet, I have the ability to create quality product because I work out my process before I even make anything, unlike most, but I digress. OMA is known for their formulated architectural process and programmatic genius which are defined by concepts that are carried out in methodical and impressive maneuvers. This year’s Prada show set was no exception to OMA’s process of process and it gives real insight of what happens when we have an architect do a job in the fashion realm…
The concept: The abstraction of a city as inspired by the literature of Leon Battista Alberti, defined at a domestic scale of a club. Layman’s English: The shos space becomes an interior urban environment by created by abstracting individual components of a city which may be interacted with. Components include: A bar ( by which an audience can stand and watch), a theater with racked seating, a music hall as represented with pink foam, barrage of adverts and media of ambiguous facts on which the models strut, a central park composed of green resin (pictured above), a kiosk, a beauty shop with whimsical and surreal products, a road with typical signage, and a wall of continuous projected media. But what’s the purpose?
To the regular folk/ non-architects, they may understand it all on the superficial level of, “wow, its like a city”. Great, you got that far…But, Koolhaas’ intent is to make the audience actual inhabitants of this artificial city within a real city that he has programmatically and diagrammatically conceived. He has done so by defining spaces of a public urban realm within a private setting, thus reinforcing the notion of fashion being of the public but attainable for the select and private few. He has anticipated circulation paths that dictate his narratives as they are navigated by the subject by defining both the paths of audience and the path of Prada, and at moments he even allows the two to cross, further engaging the audience as desired. The models themselves are meant to be the idyllic inhabitants of the urban environment of which they share, in part with the onlookers, but in reality they are intended to be the mirrors of their desire. Which creates a disconnect, necessary of the brand to ensue an aura of fantasy while maintaining Prada’s exclusivity. Not your typical long rectangular catwalk in a tent is it?
Now that you may have a better understanding, here’s the video of Prada’s F/W 2010 show so you can experience the spaces in a new light…
What do you think should runway be this fantastical?
Photos via: http://www.oma.nl/
