In the age of AI, handmade work is becoming radical (and chic), and consumers are taking notice.

Prada’s new holiday campaign, Drawing Prada, celebrates craft and process, earning praise on social media for its use of handmade animation.

The campaign transports the actors Chen Haoyu, Luther Ford, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Maya Hawke, and Sadie Sink into a fairy tale–like animated forest, complete with a cozy cabin and charming woodland creatures.

In one scene, Harrison Jr. walks through a snowy path only to be hit by a snowball thrown by an animated cat-like figure who quickly turns around and whistles, trying to have nothing to do with it.

In another, Sink kneels beside a fireplace and peers into a mouse hole, finding a trio of mice atop a Prada bag and a shoe, all while munching on cheese.

But it is not just the whimsy that is capturing the attention of consumers. The animations are hand drawn by animator John Pomeroy, whose work includes films like Thumbelina and Disney’s Pocahontas and Fantasia 2000. Prada went out of its way to highlight the handmade process.

In the campaign’s images, the actors are superimposed on top of the artist’s sketches and process, as a sort of reminder to viewers that the work is made by humans. It’s a refreshing counter to the AI slop metastasizing across media.

The campaign draws on what luxury fashion has always sold: handcraft and quality. Now the ads are catching up, made as couture as the clothes.

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