Miuccia

Hello.
I haven't seen much about this article in the blog world. However, that said - I don't read dozens of blogs. Maybe a baker's dozen. Anyway, the NYTimes covered Miuccia Prada's foray into the art world. Actually, she's been running the Prada Foundation for quite a while now working with artists such as Dan Flavin, Thomas Demand, Carsten Holler and even Quentin Tarantino. Her "foundation commissions, on average, two artists a year to do large-scale or otherwise ambitious works, the kinds of things they dreamed of doing but had neither the resources nor the opportunity to do."

I mean, I don't know at what point in their career these artists were commissioned for their work but as a side note these artists have shown in the MOMA and the MET. Hardly the starving artist crowd. Or, perhaps they were better known after the miu-blessed commissions.

Regardless, I wanted to discuss this article because of the obvious connections between the art world and the fashion crowd. Whether it's been mutual disdain or an exchange of inspiration, both groups have acknowledged each others influence on each other for many, many years.

Check it here for yourself - I will leave you with my favorite quote. She strikes me as first an admirer then a nerd then a creative. Decades after global success she still seems to me like another entrepreneur who just wants to pursue her side hobby.

“In the last few years I have come to understand the value of fashion,” Prada reflected, when asked about how she sees the foundation, and herself, today. “I always felt guilty about being interested in it, but now I can say that it’s creative work and it relates to the world, and people buy it because it means something to them beyond the logo, I’m sure. I appreciate that the business part of it is an honest transaction. I wouldn’t have said this 20 years ago, but to be an entrepreneur is to be creative. Why be a fake moralist and say you don’t care about money — although to say I do it for money is crazy.”

She went on: “I say all this because it was a little ridiculous how I wanted to keep entirely separate the art and fashion. In the end, I’m the same person. At the moment I’m very happy to be a designer because some women like to put my dresses on, while many people in art are frustrated with all the money and they are asking what does it mean.”

What does it mean? I asked.

Prada hesitated before venturing to answer. For a second, she looked uncharacteristically uneasy. “I’m searching.”