For its Fall 2012 collection—sleek, geometric clothing that the New York Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn described as "plays on formality and beauty" in which models look "otherworldly"—Prada has bestowed the task of designing a suitably steampunk-esque and futuristic lookbook unto OMA, the Rotterdam-based firm run by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. Having worked with the Italian fashion label for 15 years (on stores, events, and runway shows), this turned out to be an explosive match of creative wits, in which OMA's research arm devised and art-directed "a dystopian society of machines and jagged geometries, genetically perfected clones roam digital colonies, engrossed in oblique and possibly deviant power dynamics." According to Co.Design, which has a full look at the video and corresponding stills, the promos "[reference] a handful of cultural touchstones"—you know, just the usual German expressionist science-fiction movies and electronic music projects. More illustrations, right this way.
· For Prada's Steampunk Collection, Surreal Ads by Koolhaas's Firm [Co.Design]
· All Rem Koolhaas coverage [Curbed National]