Dear Shaded Viewers,
When Miuccia Prada joined her family company in 1978 it was a heritage, luxury leather goods name. It was not a fashion product and although desirable, high quality and for many people a good brand, it didn’t have high visibility. Established in 1913, by her great grandfather Mario, all this would change with the arrival of Miuccia and her future husband Patrizio Bertelli.
A decade later in 1988 they introduced womenswear and from the very first season it was important, discussed and analysed. Since Miuccia Prada seemed an unlikely fashion influencer, designer, and key international player this was not and isn’t surprising. Since her birth in 1949 and through her education which culminated in a doctorate in Political Science from the University of Milan, and active participation in the Italian Communist Party, this fashion designing role didn’t seem like a perfect creative fit; yet it was and is.
In 1992/93 Miu Miu was launched, not as many see it, simply a younger sister to Prada but as the online statement puts it “A cast comprising actors and performers is inherently keyed to the meaning of Miu Miu – of transformation, of reinvention, of a woman who can be women. These figures – constantly recreating themselves, for others but also for themselves – represent the plurality within every woman.”
All this is truly relevant to what we went to see in Paris in October, alongside Miuccia Prada’s deep engagement with art through her own gallery and support for new talents.
As a free offsite addition to Art Basel, I was fascinated to see what “Tales and Tellers” might be.
Walking towards the Palais d’Iena where Miu Miu shows its collections during Paris Pret a Porter, one notices Conseil Économique Social et Environnemental is what the building holds, so often during rushing to the show the building itself goes un-noted. It was built in 1939 designed by architect Auguste Perrot at a time of bold monumental and often brutalist buildings. In both Germany and Italy extremist leaders were inflating their profiles and readying for war, and this choice of controversial, not conventionally beautiful architecture sits comfortably with the Miuccia Prada intellectual approach to fashion.
The vast space is open, and the installation encompasses every possible fashion component, from make-up to music, from gift bags as handed out to the press and the even instant newspaper of the season.
There are models walking through as in a catwalk show, there are models on screen talking, changing, and overlapping visually, there is a photography shoot set up with white backdrop and camera, and there are rails with clothes.
However, it is all slightly oblique, reworked, not real or simply nonfunctional. It is a fantasy of fashion but real. Even the teams rearranging things or polishing mirrors, shiny metal surfaces or video screens are part of the event.
The printing process with the newspaper on galleys circulating is like vintage WWD, and the freebie bags catalogue lays out all the separate “stories” in the space. The films featured were all made over the seasons for Miu Miu.
At times I wondered if were part of the installation, or observers? Does the installation exist without an audience? Like a fashion show without an audience, we are indeed part of the event, but the films and screens continue without our attendance, as do the models participating in the “event” and the cleaners and curators moving through the space.
Tales and Tellers was conceived by interdisciplinary artist Goshka Macuga and curated by Elvira Dyangani Ose, Director of MACBA, the museum of contemporary art Barcelona. The performers were actually directed by opera director Fabio Cherstich, so although appearing to be natural, after a few moments you realise they are in fact giving performances.
Fashion is by definition often artificial in its approach to reality, and this event, exhibition, art, installation, possibly even in the 1970’s mode “A Happening” merges everything into a false sense of reality. Ultimately, it’s about lots of different women, and as the great star Gertrude Lawrence once said, “I want to be lots of different people,” so Miuccia Prada in Miu Miu wishes both to encourage the idea and to promote its usage in fashion terms. Her thought processes often seem anti “fashion” and she certainly never follows trends or emphasises her commercial attitudes for Prada or Miu Miu.
Miu Miu and Art Basel seem natural partners, thoughtfulness and ideas linking them. The time spent at Tales and Tellers left as many questions hanging, as much it did offer fashion understanding, even with the help of the beautifully produced free book. The exhibition deserves to have a longer life and allow more people to see it, it isn’t seasonal or ephemeral, it is intelligent in its ideas.
Whatever we expect from her, Miuccia Prada continues to surprise us, with her personal and unique approach to “fashion,” telling tales being a key element.
Later,
Tony Glenville
