Italian fashion label Prada has announced a Manga Contest project for its new "Swing" collection of sunglasses, which are inspired by the 1950s "cats-eye" sunglasses shape. Each participant must create a storyboard for a comic featuring a "fantasy" heroine who wears sunglasses from the Prada line in the comic and submit the storyboard by August 31. The winner of the contest will receive 5,000 euros (about US$6,500). Rules and other details on the contest are available at the official Prada website. (In linked page, click the "Projects" menu option.)

Prada head designer Miuccia Prada, granddaughter of the company's founder Mario Prada, notably contributed two fashion designs to the Shinji Aramaki-helmed computer-animated film Appleseed: Ex Machina (pictured above) in 2007. Other famous designers who have been involved in anime or manga productions include Julie Haus, who was inspired by Tomoko Hayakawa's manga The Wallflower; Anna Sui, who contributed clothing designs for the Gonzo anime Gankutsuou; Japanese-born Atsuro Tayama, who designed clothing for the anime adaptation of Ai Yazawa's manga Paradise Kiss; and Louis Vuitton, who has collaborated with superflat artist Takashi Murakami on several occasions, including on the short animation "Superflat First Love." Yana Toboso's Kuroshitsuji manga series inspired designs at Tokyo's Individual Fashion Expo in 2008, and Black Peace Now sold limited items inspired by the manga.