Prada Redefines the World of Fashion Through Art and Design

By Sotheby's

T he auction “Prada: Tools of Memory” celebrates the importance of design across art and fashion today. In this one-off virtual event, join Vogue Italia Creative Director Ferdinando Verderi and close collaborator of Miuccia Prada in conversation with Another Magazine Fashion Features Director Alexander Fury, and Serpentine Galleries Artistic Director and globally respected, writer, critic, curator and lecturer Hans Ulrich Obrist, as they discuss Prada’s universe of understated luxury and transformative fashion.

Sotheby’s upcoming online auction “Prada: Tools of Memory” (2- 15 October) honors Miuccia Prada’s unique vision within the house of Prada, in which she redefined the world of fashion through design, art and architecture. The auction will raise funds for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and its efforts to safeguard learning for students around the world in the face of the unprecedented disruption caused by COVID-19.

Prada will donate its proceeds raised in this auction will specifically benefit UNESCO’s new campaign entitled Keeping Girls in the Picture and their Global Education Coalition’s Gender Flagship, which has been leading collaborative efforts to promote the continuity of learning during closures and ensure a safe return to school for all women everywhere.

“She liked to disturb – and her eye and mind have reshaped the way we look at our clothes and ourselves.”
Alexander Fury

Designs from the Prada autumn/winter 2020 collection. Courtesy Prada.
“[Erwin] Panofsky constantly hinted at this idea that we can invent the future with fragments from the past, and I think that is a very important aspect of all of Miuccia’s work.”
Hans Ulrich Obrist

“The brand has the ability to speak to many and it is able to preserve an incredible complexity... the meaning of this auction is a clear celebration of the timeless value of a piece. The provocation here is to take a moment in time and to give it the platform to make it timeless.”
Ferdinando Verderi

Prada: Tools of Memory will take place online, 2–15 October. The exhibition will be on view, 16–23 September in London, and 18 September–1 October in New York. Enquiries: +44 20 7293 5392.

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