The fashion industry is well-known for its collaborations. Every few months we’ll hear of a new This X That, celebrating two powerhouses combining forces and creating a new one-of-a-kind capsule collection. But one of the most iconic examples of art X fashion, isn’t something you can purchase or wear - it’s the famous Prada Marfa installation in the Texan desert.

Artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset created this sculptural installation in 2005, a replica of a Prada storefront just a few miles outside of Marfa, Texas. Though the installation’s door is nonfunctional, everything else is very real with two large windows displaying actual Prada wares—6 handbags and 14 right-footed shoes—picked out and provided by Miuccia Prada herself, from the fall/winter 2005 collection. Prada also allowed Elmgreen & Dragset to use the Prada trademark for the work. The duo first intended that the installation not be repaired or maintained, letting the building gradually degrade into its surroundings. Those plans quickly changed as, on the very first night of the installation completion, vandals graffitied the exterior and stole its contents. The sculpture was quickly repaired and now boasts a concealed security system. Not only did Prada Marfa not erode quietly into the land, it has since become a landmark and pilgrimage site—a cultural sensation attracting tourists and social media influencers from all over the world. “It became a symbol beyond our expectations, or individual ideas, in good ways and bad,” said Elmgreen himself in 2019.

A shift in the collaborative nature of the installation came in 2013, when the Texas Department of Transportation demanded an advertisement tax to be paid by Prada, eliciting a response from Elmgreen stating that the work was never commissioned by them and that no company is behind this work of art. In 2014, Texas officials announced the structure would be reclassified as a museum, with the Prada Marfa as its only exhibit.