The Wonderful World of Prada Wallpaper

The Wonderful World of Prada Wallpaper. By Glenn Waldron. 10 Magazine. Spring 2008. 

excerpted text and quotes:

"Prada wallpaper os clearly something else altogether - one part art installation, one part cultural provocation and another part - the biggest part naturally - yet more proof of the genius that is Prada. Because Prada wallpaper isn't actually for sale." (Glenn Waldron)

"You can inject so much energy and you can do so much. It is a lot of fun. And again, it's all about experimenting on different levels". (Miuccia Prada)"

"...a fast, flexible way to continually renew the identity of the stores." (Rem Koolhaas)

"Indeed, with Prada's Epicenter stores increasingly acting as sites of cultural exchange, the wallpapers have become a way for the architecture of each space to mimic the temporal, season-based nature of the fashion industry." (Glenn Waldron)

"Whether it's in 2003's timely exploration of the Far Eastern consumerism or in Damien Hirst's recent skull-fest, the wallpapers seem to seize the zeitgeist with gusto".(Glenn Waldron)

"In addition to selling clothes at these Epicenter stores. we try to establish a theme that changes annually, some kind of reflection on culture. The wallpaper is basically about creating a parallel universe to the fashion. It's intentionally detached from - and constitutes a very different realm from - the fashion." (Alexander Reichert, creative director of OMA)

"It's always been an incredible generous relationship. It'd kind of a triangulated setup between OMA, Miuccia Prada and ourselves, but it works well. We'll send ideas to Miuccia, she'll send ideas to OMA. It's always been a very organic process". (Alexander Reichert)

"No, I don't think so. We're not artists and we don't feel compelled to be artists. I also don't see fashion as art either. We're designers. We're working in negotiation with fashion and architecture, but we don't assume for ourselves the freedom that artists can assume." (Alexander Reichert)

"I think they fit very well into the Prada sensibility, because there are so many elements to Prada that are not just about selling clothes - the work that the Fondazione Prada does, for example. Also, the recent exhibition of Miuccia Prada's skirts [Waist Down]. We hop that the Epicenters have become places where people come not only to buy clothes but to discuss new ideas." (Alexander Reichert)

MoMA acquired two of the wallpapers for their permanent collection. In the exhibition, there's a large full-scale section of Vomit, as well as video screens playing reproductions of all the various different wallpapers." (Alexander Reichert)