Identity is something every fashion label is obsessed with right now – what it should be, how to get it, how to bank on it. Prada is one of the houses whose distinct, powerful identity is fodder for many lesser talents, which is perhaps why the label’s Autumn/Winter 2018 collections – for him and for her – featured a sly wink and nudge to that idea in the form of ID cards clipped onto models’ collars and chests. They were the kind of name tag a faceless factory worker, office drone or out-of-office visitor might be instructed to wear and keep visible at all times – Prada’s even came stamped with faux corporate identities, logotypes and symbols ironically invented by the fashion house for purely decorative purposes. They come in saffiano leather, a fragment both of the brand’s own make-up and of the breed of pure luxury normally inapplicable to office supplies. Prada’s identity is strong and oft-imitated because it isn’t about a logo. And in these perverse inversions – both of that material idea of status, and the ideological notion of transforming the anti-creative uniform of corporate behemoths into a new form of personal expression – these name tags were quintessentially Prada. They could be read as such, even if they didn’t have the name on them.
Set design: Amy Stickland at Webber. Lighting: Emma Ercolani. Photographic assistant: Fuminori Homma. Styling assistants: Charis Lorraine and Benedetta Baruffi. Set-design assistant: Nienta Nixon. Production: Webber. Post-production: D-Touch Studio.
This story originally featured in the Autumn/Winter 2018 issue of AnOther Magazine which is on sale internationally now.
