A fake Prada store in the middle of the Texas desert has become an attraction for visitors and vandals — here's how it got there

The storefront looks exactly like the classic Prada store found on Rodeo Drive or Fifth Avenue, however this time, it's in Valentine, Texas, a town with a population of 127 people.

According to Atlas Obscura, the sculpture is designed "as a surrealist commentary on Western materialism." It is constructed entirely from a biodegradable material that is meant to gradually decay.

Before creating Prada Marfa, Elmgreen and Dragset were living in the eclectic New York City art scene in the early 2000s. According to Vogue, the duo was pushed out of the SoHo neighborhood, which had been taken over by luxury boutiques, and forced west to Chelsea.

In Chelsea, they playfully constructed a sign on a gallery that read "Prada, Coming Soon." The sign was a subtle nod at the effects of gentrification driving consumerism, and it caught the eyes of creative consultants Yvonne Force Villareal and Doreen Remen, who ran a non-profit called the Art Production Fund. They immediately jumped into collaborating with Elmgreen and Dragset on Prada Marfa.

They worked with Ballroom Marfa, a contemporary art museum in Texas, to bring their vision to life.

Made out of traditional adobe bricks, the sculpture actually mimics the architectural style of Marfa, which is known as a center for minimalist art.

Miuccia Prada, the co-chief executive and co-creative director of Prada, was consulted on the exhibit. Her merchandise choices were displayed in the window front, even though the doors would always remain locked.

The interior design, including the wall color, lighting, and carpet, were all sampled from Prada's own retail stores in Milan.

In an interview with The New York Times, Villareal said, "If someone spray-paints graffiti or a cowboy decides to use it as target practice or maybe a mouse or a muskrat makes a home in it, 50 years from now it will be a ruin that is a reflection of the time it was made."

But extensive press coverage soon drew more visitors than expected.

Despite their original intent of leaving Prada Marfa at the hands of Mother Nature, the artists decided to return and install security measures to deter further vandalism.

Prada bags were given GPS trackers, the bottoms of the bags were cut off, and stronger glass was swapped in.

The vandalism left Prada Marfa covered in graffiti and a platitude of TOMS logo signs, attached with strong glue that ruined the storefront's glass.

According to The Observer, "The perpetrators left fliers at the store-shaped sculpture that, in a manifesto of sorts, decried TOMS for recent partnerships with high-end retailers, the kind that might also sell Prada."

After the vandalism, Prada Marfa ran into yet another roadblock when the Texas Department of Transportation classified Prada Marfa as an illegal roadside advertising. In order to mediate the setback, the nonprofit that worked with the artists, The Art Production Fund, agreed to donate Prada Marfa as a "civic gift" to the public.

Celebrities, such as Beyonce, have even paid a visit to the lonely Prada store.

"It has turned into something beyond our control," Elmgreen and Dragset told Vogue. "And that is the best thing an artist can experience. As artists we are only here in order to trigger a debate, to provide platforms for other people's interpretations."

• Read more:
• You can spend the night in an 80-square-foot cabin in Canada that features a glass roof and walls for stargazing
• I spent a long weekend in Boise, Idaho, earlier this year and learned why people are moving there en masse right now
• For $2,000 a night, you can rent RVs that Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, and Dolly Parton once used as tour buses — take a look inside
• An open-air float-in movie theater is coming to London where you can watch movies from a boat on the river