I love Prada’s Spring 2012 campaign video above, which was photographed by Steven Meisel. I’ve had a love-hate relationships with Prada since adolescence, when I first started buying American Vogue with my babysitting money at the Harps Grocery store across the street from the subdivision where I grew up. My friends and I would walk there from my neighborhood pool under the hot Arkansas sun to refuel with fashion magazines and sweet iced tea. Obviously the two most important things to have poolside during an afternoon swim.

I’d flip through Vogue, staring at the ads, fantasizing about the day when we could wear such stylish clothing. I dreamt of the day when I’d escape Arkansas to return to New York, although I’m so much happier I landed in Chicago. Yet Prada ads always puzzled me. I didn’t understand why often times the models were styled to look, well, weird. I didn’t get it. Unlike the Gucci/YSL aesthetic, which some (a.k.a. my marketing professor mother) criticized as being sexually exploitative, the Prada girls seemed alien with a sexuality hidden under high necked blouses and knee length skirts. I can’t remember ever seeing a thigh-high slit on a Prada girl.

Finally, I understood Prada and her wacky, delightfully off aesthetic when I saw the Spring 2012 photos on Style.com. Hot rods! Cocoon coat! Bare midriffs! Oh and the shoes. Who could forget the mesmerizing heels that literally looked like the footwear equivalent of a 1950s Cadillac? I even devoted a whole post to my love affair with the flame-encrusted stilettos. The styling, the music, the set, it’s all impeccable. Of all the Prada campaign videos I’ve ever seen, this is my favorite. And coming from a girl with a self-professed fear of riding in cars (I’ll take a train or a plane any day), that is one bold statement.