The Italian fashion house has commissioned two popular creative minds of the industry —fashion designer-turned-illustrator Richard Haines and spot director and producer James Lima—to collaborate on a new Prada’s multi-platform project «Il Palazzo». 

It all started back in January this year, after Prada’s Fall/Winter 2012 menswear show, when the brand’s creatives asked Richard Haines to produce sketches comprised of scenes from the runway and backstage, while inspired by the concept of this season —»A palace of the role play» or «Il Palazzo».

About 150 Haines’s pencil drawings featuring different models and items from men’s Fall/Winter 2012 collections, including images of Gary Oldman, Willem Dafoe, Adrien Brody and Jamie Bell, were printed in some books weirdly drawn over the existing text and illustrations, «layering genres and eras to create random meanings and associations», Prada.com’s page says.

Pic. Some featured Richard Haines’s illustrations for Prada’s»Il Palazzo» project

As a second stage of the «Il Palazzo» project, Prada brought those 150 Haines’s drawings of men’s Fall/Winter 2012 collection together and published them as a special art book in 500 copies only. Moreover, Prada has recently introduced the «Il Palazzo» experience digitally, having created an iPad app, which offers users a walk inside the palace full of Prada’s men capsule collection items and Richard  Haines’s hand drawings.

This interactive experience for Prada, as well as some earlier animated movies «Trembled Blossoms», «Fallen Shadows» and whimsical video lookbooks «Real Fantasies» was created by James Lima, who is also known in the industry for collaboration with Versace and Alexander Wang.