“​Prada Invites” project for the women’s show, Prada invited three women at the top of their industry to create new artifacts from the signature material.

Prada has showcased its 2019 spring/summer womenswear collection within the AMO-transformed deposito, similar to catwalk installation for the men’s show earlier this year. As the second installment of the “Prada Invites” series, Kazuyo Sejima, Elizabeth Diller and Cini Boeri all worked with the Italian brand to create designs from the classic Prada Nylon. “Prada Invites” is intended to look at the intersectionality of design, leading to conversations and collaborations between different design disciplines.
Kazuyo Sejima designed two bags, one called the ‘long bag’ and the other, the ‘curved bag’. Both turn multipocket travel bags, one designed to hang on the wall and the other a neck pillow, respectively, into carry-on styles.

Elizabeth Diller reworked the nylon garment bag, with utilitarian zippers and buckles, into a raincoat and yoke-style bag. The latter was transformed into a lighter item for women to carry ‘sketchpads, sandwiches and lipstick.‘

And Cini Boeri her design for Prada is a messenger style bag with removable and adjustable modules. In the booklet, Boeri states, ‘in the way I work, the image derives from function, and so many design work starts precisely from this.’
 

Description of project by AMO-prada

For the 2019 Spring/Summer Prada Womenswear show, AMO transforms the Deposito, the most dramatic space of the Fondazione Prada complex, into a multifunctional venue for performances.

Through a series of architectural interventions, the design reinterprets the classical spatial repertoire of the theatre with a Terrace, Parterre and Balcony, and uses these to activate the hall for the fashion event. These elements offer different ways for the audience to experience the show, while simultaneously defining a perimeter within the room, sparking a dialogue with the industrial character of Deposito.

The (acid) green terrace, strikingly punctured by the sculptural white beam that acts as counterbalance for the recently opened Torre, is the first structure you encounter when entering the room. A passage through the tribune leads you onto the center parterre marked by a graphic grid that organizes seating and defines the catwalk. The theatrical nature of the event is articulated through the monumental scale and dramatic framing of the main space, which is visually concluded by the balcony – an assembly that extracts and reinterprets the orange structural system lining the perimeter of Deposito – establishing a visual and material synthesis between the permanent and provisional.

The inflatable stools by Verner Panton – an exclusive re-edition of the 1960s piece, produced by VERPAN for PRADA – expand the set’s material palette, vanishing in the dim lights that outline the plastic carpet of the parterre - the same 100% recyclable clear plastic sheet on set at the Prada Menswear show in June - creating an uncanny and dreamlike atmosphere.

More information

Kazuyo Sejima. Architect. Born 1956 in Ibaraki prefecture, Japan. Master’s in Architecture, Japan Women’s University in 1981. Worked in office of Toyo Ito before founding her own studio in Tokyo, Kazuyo Sejima and Associates in 1987. Founded SANAA with Ryue Nishizawa in 1995. She is currently a professor at the Polytechnic University of Milan, a visiting professor at Japan Women’s University and Osaka University of Arts, an Emeritus Professor at Yokohama National University, and Director of Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum.

Her own works include House in Plum Grove, Inujima “Art House Project,” and Japan Women’s University Mejiro Campus. SANAA’s main works include the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, the Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art; the De Kunstlinie Theater and Cultural Center in Almere, the Rolex Learning Center, LouvreLens Museum, Grace Farms, Bocconi University New Urban Campus, La Samaritaine, Art Gallery of New South Wales Expansion — Naala Badu Building, and Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building W18, Cambridge, USA, 2024. 

In 2010, Kazuyo Sejima was appointed director of the 12th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. 

Awards won by SANAA include the Arnold Brunner Memorial Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2002), the Golden Lion at the 9th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale (2004), a design prize from the Architectural Institute of Japan (2006), the Kunstpreis Berlin from the Berlin Academy of Arts (2007), and the Pritzker Architecture Prize (2010). Japan Architecture Award, Rolf Schock Prize in Category of Visual Arts, Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Prix de l’Équerre d’Argent, the Medal with Purple Ribbon, Thomas Jefferson Medal, Praemium Imperiale, and the 2025 Royal Gold Medal by the Royal Institute of British Architects. 

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Elizabeth Diller, (Poland,1954), is a partner of Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R). Alongside partner Ricardo Scofidio, Diller’s cross-genre work has been distinguished with TIME’s "100 Most Influential People" list and the first MacArthur Foundation fellowship awarded in the field of architecture.

Elizabeth Diller has also received the Wolf Prize in Architecture. Most recently, she led two cultural works significant to New York: The Shed and the expansion of MoMA. Diller also co-created, -directed and -produced The Mile-Long Opera, an immersive choral work staged on the High Line. Diller is a member of the UN Council on Urban Initiatives and a Professor of Architectural Design at Princeton University.

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Cini Boeri. (Milan, 1924 - September 9 2020). Graduated from the Milan Polytechnic in 1951, after a short internship in Giò Ponti's studio, she began a long collaboration with Marco Zanuso. She began her professional activity in 1963, dealing with civil architecture and industrial design.

She has designed single-family homes, apartments, museum installations, offices, shops in Italy and abroad, dedicating great attention to the study of the functionality of space and the psychological relationships between man and the environment. In the field of industrial design she has been particularly involved in the design of elements for furniture and building components. Several of his creations are present in museums and international exhibitions.

She has held conferences and lectures at various universities and institutions in Italy and abroad, in Berkeley, Barcelona, ​​at the Nucleo del Deseno Industrial in Sao Paulo, at the College of Architects in Rio de Janeiro, at the Cranbrook School in Detroit, at the Southern California Institute. of Architecture by Vico Marcote (CH), at the Pacific Design Center and UCLA in Los Angeles, at the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture, University of Italian Switzerland.

In the years '81 -'83 she carried out courses in "architectural design" and "industrial design and furniture" at the Faculty of Architecture of the Politecnico di Milano. Member of the Board of Directors of the XVI Triennale di Milano. She participated in numerous juries of international competitions and received numerous international awards. Appointed ADI Honorary Member, 2012.

Selected bibliography:
Cini Boeri, Le dimensioni umane dell'abitazione, Franco Angeli, Milan 1980.
Saggio, La dimensione del domestico, in, M. Bertoldini (a cura di), La casa tra tecniche e sogno, Franco Angeli, Milan 1988.
Saggio, Progettista e committente, in Struttura e percorsi dell'atto progettuale, Città Studi ed., Milan 1991.
Cecilia Avogadro (a cura di), Cini Boeri, architetto e designer, Silvana Editoriale, Milan 2004.
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Published on: September 23, 2018
Cite:
metalocus, ANDREA GONZÁLEZ
"Prada invites three leading female architects: Kazuyo Sejima, Elizabeth Diller and Cini Boeri for Luggage Designs" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/prada-invites-three-leading-female-architects-kazuyo-sejima-elizabeth-diller-and-cini-boeri-luggage-designs> ISSN 1139-6415
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