Prada's Opening a Museum for 24 Hours - Fashionista

Prada's Opening a Museum for 24 Hours

Fashion museum exhibitions are a dime a dozen this year, but some of them have been pretty unconventional--one example being Valentino's virtual museum. And in a way, Prada's latest project is the opposite of that. While Valentino's museum is accessible at any time, forever; Prada, whose creative director has her own Met exhibit coming up, is staging an exhibition in Paris for a very limited time: 24 hours. It's aptly called "24h Museum" and Francesco Vezzoli designed it with AMO, Rem Koolhaas' think tank. So, what we will be in it? Not clothes, it seems.
Author:
Publish date:
Photo: OMA

Photo: OMA

Image Title2

The museum opens Tuesday, January 24 at the Palais d'Iéna and closes the following day. And don't think you can just wander in at 3am a la Carrie Bradshaw and Aleksandr Petrovsky. The museum is actually only open to the public for a few hours. It opens the evening of the 24th for a private dinner, after which it will turn into a "disco-club," which will be streaming live on the museum's official website, 24hoursmuseum.com. Guests have until 7am to party the night away. That's when the museum opens to the public until noon, and then again from 2 to 4:30. From 6:30 to 8:30, there will be a "closing vernissage" and that's it!

In addition to the live-streamed party, there's another interactive feature, which you can play with right now. It's a Facebook app you can download and create your own personal 24h Museum framed portrait, which involves a brightly-hued frame and a sparkly neon tear on your face. We tried it and so should you. Download it here.

Related Stories

Primary Photo
Business

24 Minutes at Prada’s “24 h Museum”

As an anthropology and art history student, I’m no stranger to museums—but the “24 h Museum,” presented by Prada and designed by Francesco Vezzoli with AMO, is like nothing I've ever seen before. Actually, it's kind of like the antithesis of the typical museum, constructed to house esteemed objects for an indefinite eternity. This pop-up museum, housed in the Palais d’Iéna, where the Miu Miu Spring/Summer 2012 show was held, challenges not only our notions of classical art, but also our notions of what defines a museum. The central space is a church nave-inspired cage constructed of pink fluorescent lights. Within the “temple” are eleven lit-up statues —creating an effect that is slightly campy and slightly holy at the same time. Vezzoli highlights contemporary divas that represent contrasting visions of femininity, such as Courtney Love (clutching her breasts, natch) and Natalie Portman, and places them—literally—on marble pedestals. Alluding directly to the convergence of religion and culture, Vezzoli places a fluorescent haloed Virgin (fashioned after his own mother) and Child in the center of the space.

Primary Photo
Business

The Met to Extend Hours for Final Days of Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty

The final days of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty" are creeping up, so the met is giving us a little more time with it, and allowing people who have jobs a chance to view the retrospective without the aggravating tourist-heavy weekend crowd. After already extending the exhibit an extra week to August 7, the museum just announced they're adding extended hours for the celebrated exhibit's last four days.

Primary Photo
Business

Valentino To Launch Virtual Museum Featuring 5,000 Images, 95 Runway Shows and More; Here's a Peek

When so much of the fashion world seems to be launching retrospective coffee table books and museum exhibitions, Valentino is cutting out the high price tags and long lines with a virtual museum. It's literally an entire museum dedicated to Valentino, but on your computer through a desktop application you can download online on December 5. According to a release, the retrospective museum, which spans 50 years of Valentino, would cover over 100,000 square feet if it were real. In addition to over 300 gorgeous dresses from the Valentino archives, the museum's content will include sketches, illustrations, ad campaigns, editorials and photos of events and memorable red carpet moments (Jackie O, Julia Roberts, etc). There's also a library of 5,000 images and 95 runway show videos.