Prada Marfa installation, 2005

Our friends at Texas Mountain Trail reminisce over their first encounter with Prada Marfa, back in 2005:

“By late summer, I started to recognize the landmarks, and I noticed a curious structure being built on the side of the road. Odd. Too small for a house or store. Too large for a bus shelter, and too far from anything to house kids waiting for the school bus. Yet, there it was, being patiently built by a small crew of men, just a few miles north of Valentine, population 247. A boxy-looking thing, way out in the middle of the desert nowhere.

In early October, I took that road home to Van Horn. The first clue was the portable lighted sign by the only gas station in Valentine. “Welcome Prada Marfa,” it said. Huh.

Then I sped by, way too fast to get anything but a hint of what it was. Stop the car, back up. What?!? A Prada store?

There, perfectly and beautifully positioned in the desert, is a sealed time capsule, a non-functional full-sized reproduction of an urban boutique Prada store stocked with the fall 2005 line of shoes and purses. It makes me happy just to look at it. It will decay in time, and the ruin will become part of the landscape.”

Keep reading at Texas Mountain Trail. (via @trailgirl)