With clients that include film greats James Cameron, Steven Spielberg and Joe Pytka, director James Lima clearly knows his way around a camera. It turns out he’s also a total computer nut, specializing in ultra-high definition technology called RED Mysterium-X, the latest and greatest in visual effects. Which makes his collaboration with Katie Grand—Love’s first commercial, “The Love Thing”—an all-out coup for the magazine. Shot in New York, the 60-second film stars Alessandra Ambrosio, Pixie Geldof, Agyness Deyn, Jeneil Williams and other models from the new issue decked out (and sometimes not) in Prada past and present. In fact it was Miuccia who introduced the two after commissioning Lima to come up with Prada’s short film and tour de force “Trembled Blossoms” some years ago.

Here’s what Lima told us about working on Love: “Most films use the familiar and simple recipe, but for The Love Thing, I wanted to explore another kind of narrative, one that is cyclical—the end is the start. It’s the first step in what an analog magazine could be in the new digital format. It’s a whole new medium really. It’s not film acting, nor is it a music video or a commercial. It’s something else, it’s something next.”