Prada builds on Year of Tiger campaigns with tiger protection initiative

Luxury fashion houses, Prada and Gucci are ushering in the new year with Chinese New year campaigns featuring this year's Zodiac animal, the tiger and raising awareness for the big cats.

Titled, "Action in the Year of The Tiger", Prada has announced that the campaign would be combined with an art project, aiming to safeguard this animal. According to Prada, the art project invites creative talents who are aged 30 and below in art schools in China (and beyond) to present a personal interpretation of the tiger.  The interpretation can come in the form of a painting, design, or a sculpture. The luxury fashion house will also be making a donation to the China Green Foundation's, "Walking With Tiger and Leopard” programme to drum up awareness for the wildlife and biodiversity in China. 

According to Prada, the works submitted for Prada's art project will be judged by a jury comprising artists Liu Ye, Lu Yang and Goshka Macuga. Whereas on the editorial front, Prada has starred actor and singer, Li Yifeng and actress, Chun Xia in a photoshoot with photographer Liu Song. The photoshoot depicts Li and Chun moving around in an evocative red space. "The result is a narrative built on gestures and direct, spontaneous interaction with the viewer," said Prada. 

Gucci on the other hand, had a more direct approach when it came to celebrating the Year of the Tiger. Releasing a campaign, titled "Gucci Tiger", the photoshoot featured real tigers alongside a range of bags, shoes and ready-to-wear decorated with tiger motifs. While the tiger motif might not be new in Gucci's designs, the luxury fashion house has released a reinterpretation of a late 1960s archival design.

"A connection between the House's past and present is formed with the mix of the contemporary tiger and the collection's logo print," said Gucci. Gucci has also been supporting wildlife through the Lion’s Share Fund, dedicated to protecting endangered species since February 2020.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to both Gucci and Prada for additional information regarding the campaigns. 

Meanwhile in November last year, Gucci and Balenciaga released The Hacker Project", a collection that "hacked" designs from iconic pieces from each brand. This collaboration started when Gucci's creative director, Alessandro Michele "swiped" designs from fellow creative director of Balenciaga Demna Gvasalia, for the recent Gucci collection. According to an article from Vogue, Gucci’s Aria show incorporated a touch of Balenciaga attitude—and what British Vogue’s fashion critic Anders Christian Madsen predicted could be the “most bullet-proof merchandise of the social media-driven fashion era”. In fact, it was not known for two fashion houses under the same label to have a said collaboration. 

Similarly when on the topic of collaboration, Prada is expected to join talks between Cartier-owned Richemont and online retailer Farfetch about launching a joint eCommerce platform. The launch of the eCommerce platform is expected to boost online sales and grow overall revenues by 40%, said Reuters.The potential partnership with Richemont and Farfetch comes as both brands were in advanced discussions with Farfetch to enhance the partnership they established in 2020. With the enhanced partnership, Richemont would be leveraging Farfetch's technology to accelerate its luxury new retail developments. 

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