“Prada, in the middle of nowhere?” So says Marge Simpson in an episode of The Simpsons that made a real-life but fake Prada store in Texas even more enticing as a photo-op pitstop, thanks to Beyonce's Instagram post of herself jumping in front of it.
The strange 'Prada store' sits by the road in the middle of the West Texas desert and has real Prada products, including 20 pairs of heels and six purses from the 2005 season. However, they are not for sale. The store is actually a permanent art work, erected in 2005 by Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, two Scandinavian artists residing in Berlin, and named Prada Marfa after the nearby town of Marfa in the Chihuahuan desert (although it's technically in Valentine).
The Art Production Fund (APF) and Ballroom Marfa, a center for contemporary art and culture, both contributed to the project's funding, while Miuccia Prada, Prada's chief designer, handpicked the products for the store's interior. She also gave Elmgreen and Dragset permission to use the Prada emblem.
It was created in response to the high-priced commercialism that was gentrifying American cities in the 1990s. The artwork was supposed to fade away over time, blending into the terrain before anyone saw it. The faux Prada store, on the other hand, has become a huge hit rather than withering away.
After Marge's exclamation, Homer relieved himself around the back of the building, stating 'it's on the side of the road, thus by definition it's a bathroom.' The store was also highlighted by the creators of Gossip Girl, with a sign directing viewers to it appearing in the Van Der Woodsens' apartment. It's now a popular location for fashionistas, millennials, bloggers, travelers, and photographers, with more than 72,000 Instagram pictures using the hashtag #pradamarfa.
The simple faux shop sits on US Highway 90, some 26 miles north of Marfa, waiting for tourists to photograph it in front of the West Texas desert, often with a stunning sunset in the background. The next town is Valentine, Texas, which is only 1.4 miles away. The Texas Department of Transportation labeled Prada Marfa as "illegal advertising" in 2013, describing it as a billboard that didn't meet the required standards. To escape being demolished, the building was reclassified as a museum in 2014, with Prada Marfa as its sole display.
Jean Dubreil