Inside Prada Mode's pop-up private club

Introduced in 2018, Prada Mode had already landed in Miami and Hong Kong during Art Basel, and in London for Frieze.

- KERRY OLSEN

Now its fourth edition was to open for two days, Sunday and Monday, during the couture shows in the French capital, taking over the art nouveau restaurant Maxim’s on Rue Royale, where the likes of Aristotle Onassis and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor once dined.

It is the latest iteration of luxury’s drive to own the experience economy, which has seen brands expand into hotels, cafes — and increasingly, form their own velvet-roped, insider-only communities. “My interests often take me to think about projects beyond fashion,” Miuccia Prada wrote in a recent email. “Mode is one of these events, offering a familiar place to extend the art experience into the social; a place where people are welcome to think freely and discuss, not forget to have fun.”Gaining entree to this mythical zone is not as straightforward as donning one of the label’s frumpy-chic coats.