Ad Architecture

On the threshold of the nineties, Rem Koolhaas brought architecture closer to advertising with the swimmers who decorated the media launching of the Villa Dall’Ava. Like his friend Laurinda Spear in the DuPont ad, “great architecture... catches you with a wink and leaves you with a smile.”

Boxes or Blobs

At the end of the decade, even the severe Swiss (Zumthor in Vals or H&deM in Dominus) saw their buildings turned into fashion catwalks; and in the Louis Vuitton or Georges Rech ads, French luxury is associated to the warps of the restaurant by Jakob & MacFarlane at the Centre Pompidou.

Cultural Commerce

Both Guggenheim and Prada integrate culture and commerce on the eve of the 21st century: the Bilbao museum (as the Las Vegas branches) supplies style brands with a factory of dreams; and the New York store is advertised with a model by OMA which shows it as a stage for spectacles.

Defensive Disorder

The day before a demonstration, the photographs by Johnnie Shand Kydd of 2001 show the shops of the London West End boarded up to protect them from violence against the fashion multinationals: the logos which say yes to cultural and economic globalization face the disorder of the times.