Prada draws its holiday campaign by hand

A fantasy made by hand

Prada has presented its holiday 2026 campaign under the title "Drawing Prada". Its central film, "Drawing Prada: Animated by Hand", places five actors, Chen Haoyu, Luther Ford, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Maya Hawke and Sadie Sink, in a winter landscape in which every frame of the animation was drawn by hand.^1,2 Prada introduces the campaign as "a Prada fantasy, created by hand" and ties the technique to a wider idea: "That sense of touch expresses a fundamental notion of humanity."¹

The campaign appeared at the end of October 2026, in a season in which the use of generative AI in advertising was being openly debated. Hypebae, one of the first outlets to show the images, stated plainly: "There is no AI involved in this one."³ Within days, coverage from Fast Company to Euronews read the campaign as a deliberate counterpoint to AI-generated holiday advertising.^2,4

The people behind the drawings

Creative direction comes from Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons, who have led the house as co-creative directors since February 2020. Ferdinando Verderi directed the campaign creatively, Glen Luchford photographed and directed the live action, and John Pomeroy directed the animation.^1,5

Pomeroy began his career at Disney in the 1970s, co-founded with Don Bluth the studio behind The Secret of NIMH and later worked on Pocahontas.⁶ Fast Company adds Thumbelina and Fantasia 2000 to his credits.⁴ The lead animator is Tom Bancroft, whose filmography includes Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King and Mulan. In Prada's behind-the-scenes reel, Bancroft describes the reunion of former colleagues: "What's great is that John called the band back together."⁶

Drawing and photography in one frame

Prada describes the campaign as hand-drawn illustration and animated wintertime fantasy scenes, combined with photography that mirrors the lighting and perspective of the drawings. The references are the charm of old Hollywood and the world of fables, and the focus is placed on craft and process.¹

The drawn world is populated by animals that interact with the cast. A fox follows Maya Hawke through the snow, a lynx watches Kelvin Harrison Jr. from behind a tree, and three mice make off with Sadie Sink's spotted loafers.⁶ Fast Company describes a fairy-tale forest with a cabin and woodland creatures, in which Harrison Jr. is hit by a snowball thrown by a cat-like figure and Sink discovers three mice on a Prada bag and shoe.⁴

The still images follow the same logic. They place the actors over the artist's sketches, so that the drawn origin of each picture remains visible rather than being polished away.⁴ The campaign is released as a film on Prada's YouTube channel, as a separate behind-the-scenes film and as an Instagram reel.²

The process as the message

The behind-the-scenes film gives the animators room to explain their method. "I learnt my craft with pencil and paper, through traditional, analogue drawing," Pomeroy says, adding: "There's a very distinct and purposeful reason to do hand-drawn animation."²

The campaign's title names a method rather than a product or an occasion. Prada's own text speaks of a fantasy "created by hand" and of touch as an expression of humanity, and the behind-the-scenes material puts pencils, paper and the artists on screen.^1,2 In this way the making of the campaign becomes part of what it communicates.

A contrast with AI-made Christmas advertising

Euronews set the campaign directly against Coca-Cola's Christmas advertising, which was criticised in both 2024 and 2025 for its use of AI-generated imagery.² In November 2025 Coca-Cola released two AI-driven reimaginations of its 1995 "Holidays Are Coming" spot, made with the studios Secret Level and Silverside AI.⁷ According to TODAY, five specialists produced and refined more than 70,000 video clips in 30 days for that campaign, which followed a backlash against the brand's AI-generated ad of the previous year.⁸ Creative Bloq headlined its review of the Prada film as "a sharp lesson for Coca-Cola".⁶

Fast Company places Prada within a wider movement among luxury brands in 2026. Hermès commissioned the French artist Linda Merad to illustrate its website by hand in ink on paper, with seahorses, fish, eels and starfish, and the hair care brand Oribe wrapped its holiday boxes in mosaics by the French artist Mathilde Herrero.⁴ Dayna Carney, founder of the creative agency Daynas House, summarised the argument for the publication: "Luxury fashion has always run on trust and taste, usually in that order." AI, in her words, "is technology without either".⁴

A house built on making things

Prada was founded in 1913 by the brothers Mario and Martino Prada as Fratelli Prada, a leather goods shop in Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II that sold trunks, handbags and travel accessories. In 1919 it became an official supplier to the Italian Royal Household.⁵ With "Drawing Prada", the house carries that emphasis on making from its products into its advertising, and presents its holiday campaign as a piece of work created, frame by frame, by human hands.^1,2