MILAN — Prada is strengthening its long-standing ties with the world of cinema with its latest advertising campaign.
For its fall 2026 images and flanking videos, the company tapped Academy Award-winning filmmaker Barry Jenkins to direct a young cast of international actors including Hunter Schafer, Troye Sivan, Chen Haoyu and Kelvin Harrison Jr.
The visuals invite viewers into scenes of domestic intimacy and private moments, in sync with Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons’ intention of enhancing the extraordinary within the ordinary expressed in the brand’s fall 2026 women’s and men’s collections.
Kelvin Harrison Jr. in the Prada fall 2026 ad campaign.
Courtesy of Prada
To be released on Prada’s official channels on Tuesday, the short movie alternates frames of Schafer tearing the pages of a diary apart, Haoyu reading a book and Sivan stepping out the wide windows of the location, which looks like an abandoned countryside villa. Harrison Jr. provides the only sparse lines that add to the haunting soundtrack that sets the tempo of the scenes.
“The brief was very open and, I imagine similarly to how Mrs. Prada and Raf go about creating their seasons, was more engineered to create a conversation and a direction than a destination,” Jenkins told WWD about the project.
“In a practical sense, this was no different than my work on feature films. If there was anything concrete in the brief, it was to strive to treat this the same as I would any of my other work,” he continued. “With a fashion piece, however, the narrative is important, but you have to remember to show and not tell. Fashion in some ways is architecture we use to adorn the human form. The narrative is in the shape, the silhouette, the drape, the color and texture. Being mindful of that was key.”
Chen Haoyu in the Prada fall 2026 ad campaign.
Courtesy of Prada
Jenkins highlighted that attending the Prada women’s fall 2026 show with his wife and getting “to see firsthand the way Mrs. Prada and Raf communicate ideas” was “instrumental in helping me get a solid footing in the current language of the brand.”
To be sure, he praised the label and Prada specifically for the “hunger to communicate ideas through clothing. And to allow the people who wear this clothing out into the world to communicate ideas about themselves through their mode of dress. It’s both wonderful and grounded at the same time.”
The campaign marks the first creative tie-up with a fashion label for Jenkins, whose agenda is filled with movie projects. “I’m currently working on quite a few things, with the two most fashion-adjacent being a film with Zendaya about the life of Ronnie Spector and another about the life of famed choreographer Alvin Ailey,” he teased.
Troye Sivan in the Prada fall 2026 ad campaign.
Courtesy of Prada
After making his filmmaking debut in 2003, Jenkins had his breakout feature “Moonlight” receive international acclaim and eight Academy Award nominations in 2017, securing the Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor wins. His follow-up feature, “If Beale Street Could Talk,” also received plaudits in 2018, while his work for television, like directing and producing “The Underground Railroad” for Amazon earned seven Emmy nominations, alongside a DGA Award and Golden Globe for Best Limited Series.
Jenkins’ collaboration with Prada follows in the footsteps of projects the brand developed with directors encompassing Wes Anderson, David O. Russell, Autumn de Wilde, Xavier Dolan and Nicolas Winding Refn, to cite a few. Most recently, the company tapped Yorgos Lanthimos for the “Ritual Identities” project starring Scarlett Johansson and celebrating the Prada Galleria bag, as reported.
Prada’s 20-year-long link with cinema also saw the brand creating costumes for feature films including “Australia,” “The Great Gatsby” and “Elvis” directed by Baz Luhrmann in 2008, 2013 and 2022, respectively; Anderson’s 2014 movie “The Grand Budapest Hotel;” “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” directed by Lee Daniels in 2021 and “Blossoms Shanghai” by Wong Kar-wai in 2023.
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