For those who are new to the world of fashion, here is fact update. Miu Miu is a high fashion brand of women’s clothing and accessories from the Prada fashion house. Headed by Miuccia Prada, the name of the collection is taken from her nickname. In 2012 Miu Miu launched The Women’s Tales, partnering with high-profile female directors to create silent short films that featured Miu Miu clothing. The brand has debuted its eighth Women’s Tales installment in collaboration with performance artist Miranda July. It also happens to be the first-ever app rolled out by the fashion house.
According to WWD, July has created an app called Somebody to mark the the debut of the project at the Venice Film Festival. And true to Prada’s paradoxical form, it “is the antithesis of this utilitarian efficiency that tech promises.” When you can’t be there….Somebody can.
Somebody has been designed to blur the line between real and virtual communication as well as among strangers. Miu Miu believes that while email is old, texting is tacky and calling is awkward. Somebody takes this generation’s endless hunger for communication, technology, avatars and outsourcing, and blends it into an arty interaction. In close collaboration with Miu Miu, July worked with a team of developers to create this radical and complex app.
In real sense, the app is a message service, but instead of sending the message to the user’s intended recipient, it goes to the user standing closest to the intended recipient. The actual recipient is then supposed to deliver the message to the person in real life. The most high-tech part of the app is not in the programming, it’s in the users who dare to deliver a message to stranger.
In Prada’s words, “Somebody’ works when you send a message to an intended recipient, a friend, a lover, a family member.…The message goes not to the intended recipient, but to the person geographically nearest in proximity to the intended recipient. The messenger, most likely a stranger, delivers the message verbally, acting as your stand in.”
To support the benefit and usage of this new way of communication, July has also made a short film. Such an app will help strangers to break boundaries and connect to people in a quirky manner.
Somebody makes a clear statement that Miu Miu’s communication strategy is inspired by its rebellious design point of view.
