A Book Titled Prada

Today's brisk morning found New York's fashion set SoHo-bound, but instead of queuing for yet another sample sale, they sidled into Prada's artistically palatial store on Prince Street for the unveiling of their newest creative fare - -the Prada book. Just what we need, another fashion book telling us what to wear, when to wear it, what to pair it with and flashing papparazzi pics of all sorts of celebs wearing it before. Thankfully, there's none of that in the new take-away tome simply entitled Prada. Arguably the most desired geometric shape in the world, the inverted triangle is worth very little by itself; that is until P-R-A-D-A is stamped inside, giving it a life -- and subsequent price tag -- worthy of a legacy.

Prada is everywhere—the devil wears it, Meryl Streep wore it, and the brand that’s become a household name even in the far reaches of middle America has even veered into children’s literature. You don’t have to love fashion to love Prada. Miuccia Prada herself isn’t even a fan. “I hate fashion ... I also love it, of course. Everyone, no matter who they are or what they have, has to get dressed in the morning. Fashion is about the way we think of ourselves, the way we compose ourselves, every day. For me this is very profound.” And here we thought it was all about a bitchy, sunglasses-wearing, fashion show seat-stealing clique you could never dream of fitting into. Nowhere is Mrs. Prada’s maverick take on the superficial more evident than in the concepts she sends down her runways each season, always embodying a rare, obscure type of beauty that sometimes requires a bit of searching to find, but even when Prada gets a little crazy, painting shirts and skirts with the fairy and nymph fantasies of artist James Jean, there exists an austere seriousness that edges the brand from mere clothing to coveted art.

The book itself is quite substantial—708 glossy pages bound in the brand’s signature saffiano texture, an enigmatic material proprietary to Prada that’s discussed on a fashion forum reprinted in the book, that dissects and attempts to debunk the top-secret production of the sought after leather that decks everything from key fobs to golf sets to luggage—and starts with a briefcase from sometime in the 1920’s, commencing a journey through Prada’s almost century-old exotic history. The reader is transported through time and factories, witnesses raw materials yielding a zoological family of accessories, sees just how scary a shoe can be without a heel, and all while Mrs. Prada, a fairy godmother of sorts, stands on guard through pictures, always at work analyzing, conceiving, but never merely posing, dressed almost uniform-like, pensive expression on top and trademark below-the-knee skirt on bottom.

The book goes on to answer the prayers of every serious fashion student with an all-inclusive recap of Prada’s advertising campaigns from fall/winter 1987 to 2009 before revisiting the substantial dent the brand has made in the world’s contemporary art, from Waist Down, the traveling circus of 2004, to the cinematic launch of the Infusion D’Homme men’s fragrance, which featured nine inspired short films from nine of the world’s most avant-garde emerging directors, including the States’ Michael Merryman and France’s Cyril Guyot, and even gives a sneak peek to the future of the Fondazione Prada, the brand’s global epicenter for contemporary art.

It’s one thing when a fashion house boasts heritage, but Prada, going strong since 1913, easily falls into legendary. While many associate the ultimate luxury brand with sleek black nylon bags and mint green walls, we’re more taken by the conceptual cache that’s burned bright from the beginning—from Mario Prada’s shagreen umbrella handle to the elusive Prada phone by LG, plastered in true, unorthodox Prada fashion as a three-story billboard on the side of the Duomo. Nothing if not memorable, we just added a major brand name to our coffee table collection.