A Milan State of Mind
Maxime Ballesteros Shoots the Prada Fall/Winter 2017 Womenswear Collection
Miuccia Prada designs with two hands — one summons simplicity, while the other corrupts its counterpart with subversion. Her designs are stalwart, yet never stale; light in the ability to innovate, but weighted by a characteristic timelessness. Past and future meld in each garment, with irreconcilable references somehow settling comfortably beside each other. With Prada, what is classic becomes new, again and again. To celebrate the launch of Prada at SSENSE, we commissioned photographer Maxime Ballesteros to shoot a photo story in Milan, birthplace of the brand’s beloved head designer.
Across the Ages Juxtaposing designs from emerging and enduring fashion houses To be in the here and now is virtually impossible. It is often the result of youthful ambivalence. But in many instances, it paradoxically comes from the wisdom of experience. Age doesn’t give us a future or a past. It functions to contextualize our present, and allows us to consider it objectively. In a world of accelerated evolution, there are benefits of permanence. Turn off the music that laments the passing of time and instead celebrate yours.
Balenciaga Big Data Dressing for the Age of Psychological Mapping In 2014, psychologist Michal Kosinski worked with the Psychometrics Centre at Cambridge University to develop a mathematical profiling system using Facebook activity and smartphone data. Through this, he was able to understand you, a total stranger, better than your closest loved one.With every click and double-tap, you unwittingly fill out an extensive questionnaire detailing the minutiae of your most secret self. These psychometrics ascertain personality traits by tracking desires, fears, late-night Google searches—they can deduce your stance on gun control by which stand-up comedians you follow on Instagram.
Into Infinity Daniel Regan Shoots the Prada Fall/Winter 2017 Menswear Collection Miuccia Prada designs from the inside out. The individual humanity of her garments is the source of careful consideration; this sense of self is predominant in everything she touches. The intentional practice of purging the excess — or going “from bigness to smallness,” as she described her Fall/Winter 2017 Menswear Collection — brings a new form of clarity.Daniel Regan shoots the Fall/Winter 2017 Menswear collection in Venice Beach as part of Prada 's anticipated SSENSE launch.