Luxury like no other

Italian giant Prada's Shanghai exhibition demonstrates brand's focus on Chinese market, and displays its cultural, artistic side, reports He Qi in Shanghai.

In the fashionable and artistic confines of the Shanghai Xuhui Riverside, the Start Museum, decorated to resemble a retrostyle train, is taking visitors on a journey through the history of century-old luxury brand, Prada.

Pradasphere II, an exhibition that presents the world of Prada through stories, objects and ideas drawn from the brand's archive, opened on Dec 7. The Shanghai show follows on from Pradasphere, which was held in London and Hong Kong in 2014.

The exhibition is organized as a working warehouse of creative production curated by co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons.

The spine of the exhibition is a chronology of work drawn from every significant Prada collection. Intersecting this central narrative are fragments of emblematic Prada spaces, from the original 1913 boutique and the galleries of Fondazione Prada, to the cockpit of the America's Cup yacht Luna Rossa.

The first thing that catches the eye upon entering is the green velvet entrance displaying an Andreas Gursky photograph of an emblematic wall from one of the brand's early retail stores.

Inside, nearly 200 looks line the main corridor. They were carefully selected by Simons, and span the first collection to the current day. They guide visitors through more than 400 physical and digital artworks, along with collections from the fashion archives and decades of cross-border cooperation with the art, architecture, culture, and sports sectors.

The exhibition runs until Jan 21, and as the long-awaited fashion culture feast unfolds, it is gradually clarifying the brand's goals.

In the belief that remaining culturally relevant and redefining luxury is Prada's most important pillar strategy beyond innovation and investment in the supply chain, Gianfranco D'Attis, chief executive officer of the brand, reveals that this is also the main reason behind Pradasphere II.

"I think the vision of Miuccia Prada is to make culture attractive. This is very important because art, culture, and fashion in today's world are very interconnected, and reflect the contemporary moment we are living in," D'Attis says.

He offers up a quote from Miuccia Prada: "My primary concern in my role is ideas; that's the reason for everything. Deep down, my goal with Prada is to make art and culture attractive. If art and culture are not attractive, no one will listen.

"This is the main reason we're here with Pradasphere II.We want to communicate art and culture through the lands of Prada, to convey our own perspective to the world," D'Attis says. "Prada is not just brand positioning, it's not just a lifestyle. Prada is real."