Miuccia Prada Thinks You Shouldn’t Just Text Anybody But ‘Somebody’

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Even the art for this new app is very Prada!

As resistant as Miuccia Prada’s been towards delving into the digital realm like most of the other fashion houses, she’s decided to stop fighting it for the eighth Miu Miu Women’s Tales installment, with the help of performance artist Miranda July.  And what a dive it is!

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Debuting tonight during the Venice Film Festival, July has created an app called ‘Somebody,’ (btw free on iTunes today) which ‘is the antithesis of this utilitarian efficiency that tech promises,’ according to a press release.  

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This just goes to show you how July was the perfect person to crack Prada as she too is as intellectually grounded with great foresight.  What’s even better are the would-be VIP guinea pigs for the app invited to Friday’s dinner Prada is holding in honor of the whole artistic, digital mind-bender

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which include Kirsten Dunst, Lena Dunham, Dakota Fanning, Felicity Jones, Edward Norton, Jenni Konner, Joel Cohen and Francesco Vezzoli.

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You have to love the overall feel + look of the app – it has that retro feel with bubbled boxes + text, sharing a resemblance to those probably found in a note, had you been passing around notes to tell someone you had a crush on them etc.

Here’s how it works:

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. Put more poetically in the Prada statement: “‘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.”

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Of course, July has made a short film, also to be screened in Venice, that illustrates uses for the app — breakup, make up, etc. – which makes you wonder, where was this app when you needed to break up with so + so that time – Thanks Miranda!

(via WWD)

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