HOW DO YOU CONTINUE TO REDEFINE LUXURY RETAIL IN A 20-YEAR-OLD-FLAGSHIP? ASK PRADA

12 apr 2022, for frame

Location

Design, Brand

The latest activation to build upon the retailer's physical-retail vocabulary at its OMA/AMO-designed NYC Epicenter is dubbed Prada Tropico.

Key features

Various colour and light combinations enliven the Prada space for the spring 2022 season. The team worked to create a fresh contemporary spatial language for the interior, iterating upon OMA/AMO's 2001 design of the flagship. The pop-up makes full use of the site’s Wave, a curved space that scoops out the ground floor and opens up to the basement. Ivory and green striped columns mark the entrance of the in-store installation, with its windows featuring vertical and horizontal lines in a rainbow palette. Now temporarily dominated by bright green stripes, the area is contrasted by bouquets of Prada’s classic bucket hats in a wide array of colours. The headwear has been reimagined into leaves and flowers seemingly sprouting from green metal branches. A suspended illuminated Prada logo dominates the inserted ‘Tropico’ scenes while offering a fresh interpretation of the iconic triangle-shaped branding.

Frame's take

New York's Prada Epicenter was created at the beginning of the 2000s as a public space, a gallery, a performance space and a laboratory. An effort to reinvent the traditional luxury retail experience, the OMA/AMO project was the first to define shopping as a cultural activity. Over two decades later, the Prada Epicenter still is functioning as a testing ground for Prada pop-up concepts. The current space is used playfully to create opposition between the interior and exterior: the recognizable Wave looks like an original landscape inspired by the colors and atmospheres of striking distant lands. Prada Tropico will brighten Prada retail spaces – which notably have begun incorporating non-binary mannequins – this year from Los Angeles to Milan.