SPACE HOLIDAYS: The world of cinema continues to charm Prada, which is consistently tapping the new generation of movie stars for its ad campaigns.
The latest in line are Maya Hawke and Kim Tae-Ri fronting the brand’s holiday ad imagery, shot by Willy Vanderperre, alongside Damson Idris and Louis Partridge.
The four talents, all Prada brand ambassadors, are captured sitting and lounging in life-size glistening baubles turned into swinging chairs hanging from the ceiling. They recall items in the most recent holiday gifting collection by the brand which included similarly checkered Christmas tree decorations.
Decked in Prada fall 2023 looks, they stare at the camera seemingly lost in their thoughts.
The starry, almost galactic, sky and checkerboard flooring in the backdrop, the latter referencing that in Prada’s storied boutique inside Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, have a sci-fi bent, contributing to the sense of escapism the brand said it wanted to telegraph with the campaign.
The holiday campaign marks the first time Kim appears in Prada ads. She attended several brand’s shows and events, including the men’s spring 2024 runway presentation last June in Milan and the most recent Prada Mode held in Seoul in September.
The South Korean actress made her debut in the 2016 psychological thriller “The Handmaiden” by Park Chan-wook which gained her awards, including Best New Actress at the Blue Dragon Film Awards, Director’s Cut Awards, Buil Film Awards, and Busan Film Critics Awards. After headlining the South Korean film adaptation of the manga series “Little Forest” and debuting on the TV screen in the melodrama “Mr. Sunshine,” in 2021 she starred in “Space Sweepers” by director Jo Sung-hee, highly regarded as the first South Korean blockbuster space Western movie. This year, she appeared in the SBS’ television drama “Revenant.”
Kim Tae-Ri fronts the Prada Holiday 2023 ad campaign.
Courtesy of Prada
Others faces in the holiday campaign are Prada regulars. For instance, American actress and singer-songwriter Hawke, the daughter of Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, who gained global fame playing Robin Buckley in the third season of “Stranger Things,” had already appeared in the campaign for the brand’s first fine jewelry collection, alongside Amanda Gorman and Somi Jeon.
Hawke, who starred in “Asteroid City” by Wes Anderson, attended the movie premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival donning a ‘60s-inspired custom Prada green strapless dress with a structured silhouette, accessorized with blue leather elbow-length gloves. She attended the brand’s fall 2023 runway show in Milan last February.
Over the years Prada has tapped actors including Willem Dafoe, Ethan Hawke, Dane DeHaan and Ezra Miller, as well as Julia Garner, Shira Haas and Hunter Schafer, Jeff Goldblum, Damson Idris, Rami Malek, Vincent Cassel, and Letitia Wright, among others.