Why Prada's unlike every other fashion brand

The devil is in the details when it comes to Prada’s casting.

Sexy villains and high fashion? What could be more up my alley?

The brand's Fall 2012 Men’s Show at Milan Fashion Week saw a line-up of the most iconic wicked faces. 

Willem Dafoe, Tim Roth, Adrien Brody, Gary Oldman, Emile Hirsch, Garrett Hedlund and Jamie Bell strutted down the runway while dark and ominous music played. The men wore austere suits, many of them complete with knee-length, double-breasted jackets.

The popular antagonists from Spider-Man to Pulp Fiction gave the audience their best menacing looks as they made their way down the carpeted venue.

It’s a show that’s still held in high regard after all these years. And it's been trending on social media again in recent months, with edits of the actors walking going viral on TikTok.

However, it’s not the first time Prada has used cult men in their campaigns. The brand's been known to leverage models with icon status, creating cross-media appeal and capitalising on their unconventional choices.

And it’s because of this that Prada has left such an insane mark on pop culture, throughout Hollywood and the wider world.

It’s like influencer marketing, but better.

So why has the Prada taken a strategy so different to other fashion brands?

Well for one, cult actors have cult followings.

Prada has used stars like 22-year-old Joaquin Phoenix in 1996, Willem Dafoe in 2012, Frank Ocean in 2020 and Tom Holland in ’22 in their campaigns. The brand purposely selects A-listers who are the faces of tomorrow, aligning with the cultural buzz around them.

By doing this, the brand embeds itself in the cultural fabric. And this gives Prada cultural authority that distinguishes it from brands that might all look pretty much the same. And this means consumers begin to see the brand as a cultural symbol rather than just a fashion one.

It also helps the brand adopt the supersized audiences that come with the adored characters it uses.

Prada has established itself as a cultural force.

The brand doesn't just influence the world of fashion. It's embedded itself into the world of film, creating cross media appeal. During 2022 Milan Fashion Week, Prada partnered with Jeff Goldblum, an esteemed actor with a long-standing presence in film. This reinforced the brand's relevance across not just fashion, but entertainment.

These unconventional and culturally significant choices show how the brand is setting itself apart in the fashion industry.

Ensuring genuine authenticity and representation can help to engage new audiences. But mostly it’s what makes Prada stand out from other luxury brands. Many stay committed to the standard, ethereal and unreal models used on the runway. But Prada consistently creates iconic and unforgettable moments instead.

These moments are shared all over the world and create their own virality. And this further pushes Prada to the cult status it has every time.

The casting choices of Prada's menswear campaigns over the years sent a clear message. Especially during the hedonistic 90s, many brands placed emphasis on their models' physical beauty. In contrast, Prada showcased the brand through less conventional beauty standards. Not only that, but they used culturally significant personalities to do so.

If your brand wants to be not just memorable, but culturally relevant, it would be wise to think about how you can break the mould in the same way Prada does.

-Sophie, Writer