Prada Mode’s Members-Only Club at the Chelsea Hotel Takes Optimism to Space

Prada Mode has taken up residence in New York City, where the Italian fahion house has opened an immersive exhibition at the legendary Hotel Chelsea. Open to the public June 5-7, the show is titled Satellites II; a retro mood pervades the space, where you’ll find rooms retrofitted in curtains of silver fabric or dizzying cloud prints; or a monumental, light-up UFO command center. Prada-branded vending machines—stocked full of mystery gifts like limited-edition cassette tapes—are also in the building.

Each of the vignettes in Satellites II was designed by the Danish film director Nicolas Winding Refn and Japanese game creator Hideo Kojima, who first presented their joint work at Prada Tokyo Aoyama last summer. The duo became friends 16 years ago, when Kojima started collaborating with Refn, after being mutual fans for decades. Despite not speaking the same language, they’ve become iconic collaborators who communicate through visuals and emojis. “We’ll never actually communicate with words,” said Refn during a press conference and sneak peek of the exhibition. “So, the idea of taking our conversation and recreating it in as many languages as possible was a way to deconstruct how we talk—because it’s really all about purity of emotions.”

At the heart of the show’s theme is the idea of imaginative positivity, plus a sense of hopefulness for the future (with a space age twist). Take, for example, the silver-themed thread and TV screen motifs (featuring Refn and Kojima’s talking heads) which can be found on all floors of the hotel. “The screen becomes the mirror of our society, but also becomes the mirrors of what we romanticize, what we want to see, what we fear, what we love, what we hate,” Refn said.

Beyond the visual art installations, Prada Mode has also launched a live-broadcast channel online, which streams the mini concerts, workshops, performances, and panels that take place during the two-day invite-only preview. Think: a performance by provocateur and New York icon Lydia Lunch, a talk with Grandmaster Flash or Amanda Gorman, and a concert by Sophie Thatcher.

When Prada Mode opens to the public on June 5, “the Satellites invade Manhattan,” according to Refn. There will be a slate of events, like an anime festival screening at Angelika Film Center curated by Refn and Kojima, plus visual installations at Prada’s Broadway Epicenter and Katz’s Delicatessen in the Lower East Side. “For me, New York is art, music, everything,” Kojima said. “When I want to challenge myself, I think: I should go to New York. It’s almost like a different universe or a different planet. The next installation should be in outer space.”