Beauty, care, love. Prada’s exploration of these eternal, timeless values of humanity – universal emotions – inspires the Fall/Winter 2023 campaign. They are brought to life through the metaphor of flowers – both totems and gestures of tenderness and affection – here reimagined to human size, a scale that suggests otherworldly emotions that interact with five actors, all global stars – Benedict Cumberbatch, Hunter Schafer, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Letitia Wright and Li Xian. In imagery captured by Willy Vanderperre, the cast converses with these improbable blooms. An impossible sequence of surreal conversations unfolds, between these figures and flowers, a dialogue, literal and visual. Just as these conversations are paradoxical, so the flower itself is a dichotomy – both fragile and strong, precious and quotidian, ephemeral yet eternal, each one unique. A metaphor for humanity, used as an outer expression of our thoughts and feelings, we can find a synergy between flowers and an embodiment of the human experience – always implied, here made concrete. A real emotion, evoked through these seemingly unreal images.
n° 94 - 02 August 2023