Prada Holiday 2020 Campaign — ‘A Stranger Calls’

PRADA Holiday 2020: A Stranger Calls Cinematic Mystery by Steven Meisel

A cinematic context, a language of film, a mystery to be solved, a narrator reading words that the images bring to life – the Prada 2020 Holiday campaign is photographed by Steven Meisel and based on an original short story conceived and written for Prada by the best-selling author Candice Carty-Williams.

It proposes perspectives – different angles, views and cuts around the protagonists of an unfolding narrative: Prada’s accessories, jewelry and leather goods.

In the tradition of film noir, the campaign reconnects with early Prada moments pioneering the aesthetics of cinematic drama.

Five characters, five faces cast from the universe of Prada – Freja Beha, Maty Fall, Mao Xiaoxing, Rudolfs Valbergs and Merlijne Schorren – populate an isolated villa in Italy, namely Villa Gnutti, made famous through a 1981 shoot by Helmut Newton.

Photographed in black-and-white, the fragments presented in the print campaign become the door to a living narrative that develops online. Jump shots from an imaginary film offer a sense of tension, sometimes of contradiction.

A synthesis of classicism and futurism, a focal point is the new Prada Cleo handbag, debuted in the Prada Multiple Views SS21 show and featured in the Spring/Summer 2021 womenswear collection. Precious jewels for her, in gold with tourmaline or silver, reinterpret the iconic lines of the Prada triangle, like facets of a gem abstracted, the emblem appearing as delicate chain necklaces, lariats and chandelier earrings.

Prada Creative Director | Miuccia Prada
Creative Director | Ferdinando Verderi
Photographer | Steven Meisel
Model | Freja Beha, Maty Fall, Mao Xiaoxing, Rudolfs Valbergs, & Merlijne Schorre
Story | Candice Carthy-Williams
Location | Villa Gnutti, Italy