In the Fall of 2005, Prada's strategy of store expansion semed to have taken an unexpected direction in terms of choice of location for its latest outpost. The desolated and unpopulated ranching land of the  West Texas desert  did not fulfill the usual creteria of a prime retail site.  Local newspapers reported how passers-by were counfounded by the juxtoposition of high-end boutique and iconic wilderness[...].

Was Prada Marfa  [the name of the place] a critique of consumer culture or did the reconceptualization of a Prada store as art endow the brand with the authority  thta it would otherwise not have had?  The multiple and complex readings of this work would be accessible to an art-savvy taste community equally able to appreciate Prada's luxury clothing and Elmgren and Dragset's cutting-edge contemporary art...   

Fashion Theory, The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture, Issue 1, March 2007, p 9.  Nicky Ryan Prada and the Art of Patronage