Prada enlists Wong Ping and five other illustrators for animated campaign

Prada is no stranger to ingenious collaborations, and the more eccentric, the better. With a longstanding reputation for pushing the envelope with its campaigns, counting contemporary artist Francesco Vezzoli, filmmaker Wes Anderson and architect Rem Koolhaas among its many collaborators, Prada’s directional relationship with the arts has consistently made the fashion house a trailblazer. Miuccia Prada – the inimitable woman behind the label – even has a Carsten Höller slide winding down from her office, and her well-known patronage was only further crystallised earlier this year with Fondazione Prada’s new arts venue in Milan.

Adding illustration into the mix, Prada’s new animated campaign rounds up six illustrators – Carly Kuhn, Blair Breitenstein, Judith Van Den Hoek, Megan Hess, Vilda Vega and Wong Ping – who have all created work for the brand’s new range of sunglasses, Prada Raw. Ranging from more traditional fashion illustration like Vilda Vega’s watercolours to Hong Kong-based artist and animator Wong Ping’s multi-hued, standout response to the brief, the campaign launched as an interactive digital platform and virtual catwalk during the recent Paris menswear shows.

Wong Ping in particular makes perfect sense for Prada. His work is in a world of its own; psychedelic, all kinds of weird and tending to play on oddball teenage lust and other subjects shrouded in taboo in his native China. His colourful creations for Prada Raw show a more dressed up version of the trademark quirk that has made Wong Ping a favourite. And since we can’t get enough, we’re thrilled to hear he is opening his first solo show in Hong Kong this autumn!