Women, by women. The new chapter of 365 to unveil the Prada Womenswear Spring/Summer 2018 collection presents a new vision of femininity, and feminism, framed by the work of female graphic artists. The work of Brigid Elva, Joëlle Jones, Stellar Leuna, Giuliana Maldini, Natsume Ono, Emma Ríos, Trina Robbins, Fiona Staples and archive of Tarpé Mills, creator of the first female action hero, appear on clothing designs and as striking backdrops. In turn, they are framed again - by the eye and hand of another woman, Miuccia Prada.
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Their function is dual: underscoring the designs of the clothes, and the seasonal identity and attitude of the Prada Womenswear Spring/Summer 2018 collection, these graphic devices also lend each image an allegorical bent. Like the women they depict, these images are not passive but forceful, powerful; their impact is felt and their voices heard. Interrupting the models passage in the foreground, these two-dimensional graphics - faces, places, action frozen in time - become part of a three-dimensional reality, emblemizing the conversation between real and make-believe at the heart of modern times.
Photographed by Willy Vanderperre in Los Angeles, whose landscape appears again and again as backdrop to comic book narratives - like a graphic novel come to life - these images present their own self-contained storylines, of interactions, intersections, interrelations. Each one is a horizon to be explored. Inside, Prada’s diverse cast of models are transformed into avatars of dynamism, authors of their own destiny, heroines of their own stories, for us to discover.
Photography & Film by Willy Vanderperre
Models: Lexi Boling, Xie Chaoyu, Gisèle Fox, Kris Grikaite,