SHANGHAI — Can a skirt be installation art? Prada's
traveling exhibition "Waist Down" posits that it can.
Subtitled
"Miuccia Prada: Art and Creativity," the exhibition opened here on May 17
at the historic Peace Hotel on the city's famous waterfront Bund. "Waist
Down" made its debut in Japan, and after running in Shanghai until Tuesday
it will continue on to New York and a yet-to-be determined city in
Europe.
Aldo Gotti, Prada's communication and external relations
director for Japan and Asia Pacific, said Shanghai marks the exhibition's
international stop in the Far East. "Shanghai is the most exciting city in
Asia, in our opinion," Gotti said, adding, "Prada has been very quiet in
China so far."
The exhibition runs through several floors of the
Peace Hotel, a 12-story Art Deco landmark built in 1929 by British
property tycoon Victor Sassoon. In the Thirties and Forties, under its
original name of the Cathay Hotel, it was Asia's most prestigious address
and the site of Shanghai's most infamous parties. Today, much of the
original decor remains intact, including its exquisite Lalique
chandeliers.
"Waist Down" starts on the ground floor in a corridor
lined with two-dimensional cutouts that are two-and-a-half- times
life-size versions of skirts in the chronology of their design. The
cutouts, with mirrors on the opposing side, also hang in the hotel's
eighth-floor ballroom.
Actual skirts are on display on the Peace
Hotel's seventh floor. In the hallway, some on racks wiggle
electronically, while others are suspended from the ceiling over mirrors
and twirl. The bulk of the display, though, is in three of the hotel's
famous nine "national suites," which are decorated in styles deemed
Chinese, English, American, French, Japanese, Italian, German, Indian and
Spanish. The curators from the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, the
Rotterdam-based firm headed by Rem Koolhaas, set up displays in the
English, American and Chinese suites that engagingly mix fashion, interior
design and history together with a dose of whimsy.
Surreal,
translucent mannequins — wearing skirts, of course — loiter about the
suites, "reading" magazines or soaking their toes in bubble baths. Several
skirts were laid out on or hung up against stretches of fabric for a
camouflage effect. In one case, a special bedspread was made from the
green and gold tapestries used in a skirt. A few more sheer pieces were
hung simply, but behind spotlights creating dramatic shadows, while others
were lit from within.
Prada chose the location because, "Mrs. Prada
is fascinated with 1930s Shanghai, and loves the movies from that era,"
Gotti said.
  Images from Prada's "Waist Down" exhibit in
Shanghai.
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