Ingrid Sischy talks to Miuccia Prada

[Andro]

I watched this interview and was so intrigued by her whole persona. I was really inspired by her aesthetic, not just as a style of fashion but also other worldly and politicaly. Shes really the new Coco Chanel. Please check out the rare video footage of this 15 minute interview. I think she explains her reasons for designing the fall collection that recieved poor reviews from the NY Times.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2401910756503620604&q=prada&pr=goog-sl&hl=en

 

[birdofparadise]

'Bias' Cut?

I very much enjoyed her comments and inquiries about dressing the people of the world, hinting about how our jobs as designers or future designers will really be about appealing to people of different cultures, different nationalities, varying religions, some obviously at very great odds with each other. It puts designers in a very vulnerable position because you have to then come from a very singular point of view, you certainly can't be all things to all people, at least on paper. But the designs have to be...open. The idea of fashion just appealing to small clusters of bourgeois societies, as she talks about, in the UK, US, France, Italy is over, it's no longer just about people living off inheritance, it's about the overnight self made oil millionaires in Venezuela, the secretaries who save up their lunch money in Japan, the wives, girlfriends of basketball stars in the US who, maybe four years ago didn't have a dime to their names. The questions that surround luxury and exclusivity have to be asked again, luxury for whom, exclusive for whom...Can you be a designer and conscientiously want to shut a certain kind of woman/man out?

 

[stilettogirl84]

thank you for posting that- it's slow loading, so I haven't seen Miuccia's segment yet-

but karma for you for posting it!

 

[Blanche DuBois]

Well I really think this woman as a fantastic person
I admire her thoughts,
sometimes she verbalize my own thinkings
in such a way that I feel related

I love her rebel, free spirit
Specially the parte when she talks about being a huge company but not changing the core of it. I think that's an admirable thing, staying true to her feelings,

great interview to watch!

 

[stilettogirl84]

now I've seen the whole thing-

she really is such an admirable woman. She truly is a thinking person, and is true to herself. I really admire her very much.

 

[gius]

It's always fun listening to her

At the end, did she say she liked skirts because trousers interested her?
She said something like, "Women who wear trousers...they always like their back to look more attractive."
Huh???

 

[Acid]

i LOVE mrs.prada and everything she does

 

[Andro]

I'm glad you all enjoyed this interview. I was trying to search the threads to find out if anyone had posted it yet but I didn't see anything. I think that is the greatest amount of time I've seen Mrs. Prada speak to the media before.
My favorite part of the interview was when she spoke of the early times of her adulthood before she took over reigns of the family business. In part, she wanted to do her own thing but apart from the family business. All the while she was interested in fashion but not enough to make it her life. The duality of Prada supports this idea and her global brand of fashion. This idea is what makes her style independent but desirable to all who are lucky enough to visit one of her fashion *houses (boutiques or epicenters).
I also was interested in her expansion to the east and the idea that there could possibly be Prada customer living in India, Indonesia, China or the Phillipines. And what their ideas and opinions are about the individuality of PRADA.

PRADA
Milano - New York - Tokyo
Los Angeles - San Francisco

 

[Mutterlein]

I like that she kept things pretty straight forward and honest. Ingrid Sischy was talking a lot out of her *** and Miuccia didn't indulge her. Bravo to that. She seems to be very aware that she runs a business and doesn't lose herself in any other titles such as "artist" or "creative". How funny that she once favored communist ideology but now thrives in a business that is very much an antithesis to that form of economy.

Prada will respond to it's new customers in the same way it responds to it's old. Micuccia said it herself when she mentioned Givenchy's observation of the decline of French fashion. The fact that an Italian leather brand can outpace old french couture houses in popularity is something to be said about the changing dynamic of high fashion. Who are Prada's new customers? A more general way to put is who are the new customers for luxury apparel and goods? It was a question asked during the industrial growth of the 30's, in the 80's, and in the late 90's when the world saw a rise of a newly minted wealthy citizens. They call it "nouveau riche". And nouveau riche regardless of geography or cultural paradigms are all tuned in to the same thing, an appeal to understanding and grasp of "luxury". Does luxury mean hand dyed skirts with intricate beading and seam details? Or does it mean a prada logo stamped on a nylon bag?

To romantcize a luxury company's expspansion into a new market is a bit naive. Prada (along with BMW, Hermes, and other companies that offer high end goods built on a reputation of offering luxuy and status items) has undergone huge campaigns in foriegn markets to sell their goods there. China is the main one and may quickly push the U.S. aside in it's share of attention from these companies. Will these companies offer new ethnographically researched products for a diverse market? Yes and no, BMW is introducing new cars specfically for the Chinese market that are smaller and better able to deal with compact urban dwelling. But with globalization as it is it's unlikely details will go beyond that. Prada will market the same products to the Chinese as they do the Americans or the French. Rather than catering to their needs, it'll be a greater effort to convince them they need what Prada is selling. Balenciaga for example created a limited edition of it's "it" bag for the opening of it's Hong Kong store creating a false sense of entitlement to it's french heritage for it's new customers. Dior stages runway shows IN it's foriegn markets to help further drive sales and publicity. Although current trends don't expect this, the most I expect to see is maybe a few more asian faces on the runway and in ad campagins. These new international wealthy people don't want something catering to their cultural origin. What status is there in Chinese design houses, where is the heritage? They'll eat Prada up exactly as it is, and they are.

 

[softgrey]

thank you for posting that- it's slow loading, so I haven't seen Miuccia's segment yet-

but karma for you for posting it!

yes- a good reason for karma......

 

[LoveMyBoots]

IMO, this is a pretty old interview.... I was just too late to stay up and watch Charlie Rose

 

[zamb]

nice article, thanks for posting. I couldnt see it clearly but i like her jacket

 

[GBArt]

I thought it was a great interview. The funniest thing was when she denied that she is an artist. She is obviously a great artist in every important way. She passionately loves humanity, and she is intrigued with what people think. Her medium just happens to be fashion, and her canvas is the world.

GB

 

[shutterbug]

Gius, I think that she meant that skirts are much more versatile and in a way more liberating since with trousers a woman has to worry about how her butt looks in them.