Prada at Shanghai IFC — The Great Gatsby costume exhibition (2013)

A Prada store at Shanghai IFC hosted a touring display of The Great Gatsby film costumes, jewellery, design sketches and stills.

The venue

Shanghai IFC is a luxury shopping mall in Pudong, Shanghai, anchored by international fashion houses whose stores occupy multiple levels of the complex. The Prada unit there is retail rather than gallery: fitted shelving, product displays and fitting areas set the normal rhythm of the space. Its floors sit on a busy mall circulation route, so passers-by meet the shopfront directly from the concourse.

How the space was used

For the run, the store's retail floors were reorganised into an exhibition sequence: film costumes and jewellery, design sketches and stills arranged in layered groupings rather than a single row of mannequins. Display was separated from selling space, with lighting and scenic treatment built around the 1920s garments. Visitors moved through the shop as through a small gallery, retail fixtures receding behind the costume presentation.

Why it works here

Fashion houses use their own mall stores for archive and film-related presentations because the setting already carries the brand's material language, and footfall from the surrounding luxury concourse delivers an audience that is not required to buy a ticket. A costume show adds a narrative layer to a space normally read as merchandise.