Prada And Miu Miu Design For Elvis
A collection of timeless garments from Miuccia Prada adorn the main characters in the upcoming film starring Austin Butler
The highly anticipated release of Elvis gets even more exhilarating as Miuccia Prada announces her collaboration with award-winning filmmaker Baz Luhrmann and Oscar-winning costume designer Catherine Martin to produce a number of costumes for the film’s main characters.
Art, cinema, and architecture informs and inspires Prada’s interdisciplinary approach to her work, as this isn’t the first collaboration for the trio; they worked on a series of exclusive looks for The Great Gatsby in 2013, and designed for Leonardo DiCaprio in the 1996 film Romeo + Juliet.
Revisiting the archives of Prada and Miu Miu and paying homage to the era of rock and roll, the collaborators designed a series of looks for the film’s stars: Austin Butler as Elvis, Tom Hanks as his manager, and Olivia DeJonge as Priscilla.
“Central to the Elvis narrative is Elvis and Priscilla’s legendary love story. Priscilla Presley’s beauty and iconic style has indelibly marked contemporary culture. Accordingly, it was important for Baz and I that we remain true to this legacy by not merely imitating Ms. Presley’s actual clothes, but that we find a modern way of connecting audiences to her distinctive, history-making style,” said Martin. “It was wonderful for both Baz and I to collaborate creatively with Miuccia once again. Immersing ourselves in the Prada and Miu Miu archives with superlatively skilled ateliers, we made the journey to translate the Presleys’ historical clothes into the costumes that would be in the film.”
Through studying both Elvis and Pricillas style and clothing, Prada and Miu Miu imagined new creations with a traditional feel, successfully intertwining the two brand’s DNA alongside historical context. Miu Miu frequently takes inspiration from 20th century decades and design codes, while Prada offers an aesthetic, explorative interpretation.
Garments were constructed with direct inspiration and reinvention. Elvis wears a custom Prada plum mohair suit, and in one look, Priscilla dons a tweed dress worn atop a mohair sweater with a brown suede jacket that mimics her outfit for the NBC Elvis special.
The characters are imagined and recognizable through design and silhouette, nodding to the past while maintaining a contemporary feel.
Elvis premieres on May 24 at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival before screening in cinemas worldwide beginning June 22 and in North America on June 24.