I will never get lost, and I am always quite rational and sober in the face of numerous changes. I have never been afraid of any change.
——Miuccia Prada The 2013
British Fashion Awards ceremony was held at the London Grand Theater on December 2, 2013, and fashion celebrities from all walks of life gathered together. “International Designer of the Year” (International Designer of the Year) was awarded by PRADA brand designer Miuccia Prada. This is a newly added award in 2013 to honor influential international designers in the global fashion industry. Miuccia Prada, a leading figure in the fashion industry, has always attracted the attention of the media because of her profession and identity despite her low profile. Miuccia Prada, the head of the world’s top luxury brand PRADA, is also one of the few fashion designers with world influence. Her life was full of glory and controversy.
Miuccia Prada, a rebellious girl from a fashion family,
was born in Milan, the fashion city of the world, on May 10, 1949. Her grandfather was Mario Prada, the founder of PRADA, and her mother was Louis, the second generation head of PRADA. Luisa Prada. PRADA is an Italian family business, which started from a leather goods boutique founded by Mario Prada and his brother Martino in the center of Milan, Italy in 1913. The name of the leather goods store is the world-famous Fratelli Prada, which means Prada Brothers. The fashionable and high-quality handbags, suitcases, leather accessories and cosmetic cases designed by the founder Mario Prada have been favored and sought after by the royal family and the upper class.
Despite coming from a fashion family, the Milanese girl’s original aspirations were not in the fashion world. Although she is the successor of PRADA, when she was in college, she did not choose a major related to design, but majored in political science. Prada has been very thoughtful and assertive since she was a child. She is persistent in what she likes and works hard for it. Her love of political science is one example. After college, she continued her studies until 1969, when she received a doctorate in political science. Prada has an independent personality and radical thinking, and once joined the Italian Communist Party, which was quite challenging for a Catholic family, and it also ran counter to the “capitalist” career of luxury brands she later engaged in. In addition, Prada also has a strong interest in drama, participated in burlesque performances in his spare time, became a professional actor, and performed pantomime. According to Prada herself, the reason why she chose pantomime was because she was relatively introverted at the time, and pantomime could avoid verbal communication with other people. Prada chooses her profession and hobbies without restraint, and is responsible for her choices. It is this spirit of hard work that has laid a good foundation for her future design career.
Miuccia Prada’s maverick is very famous in the design world. She has little interest in various fashionable banquets, preferring to spend time with family or close friends. Ordinary designers enjoy the satisfaction of showing themselves under the spotlight of fashion season conferences, but Prada has no interest in this. It is more like a grand appearance running on the catwalk, holding supermodels and holding flowers. burden. Miuccia Prada seems to be very tired of the curtain call. After every grand fashion show, she just leaned out from behind the scenes, greeted with a smile, and disappeared in the blink of an eye. Prada seems to use this to convey his mental state of “never closing the curtain” and always ready to go.
Pursue excellence and lead fashion
Although PRADA was already quite prestigious in the fashion industry when Prada took over, this influence was only limited to Italy, and it could not match world brands such as Gucci in Italy. Under the hands of the Prada couple, PRADA has truly developed into a big brand with world influence, setting up its own banner of simplicity, fashion and personality.
Although not a professional designer, Prada has an innate sensitivity and understanding of fashion and design. In 1983, she was fully responsible for the design of PRADA.
Prada is never satisfied with the status quo and always wants to make a breakthrough. She once said: “Maybe I have a personality that wants to try the impossible. When I find that something is unachievable, that is exactly the direction I want to work hard. I always try to combine opposite and disharmonious things. And, I am usually interested in six or seven different concepts at the same time, and try to express them harmoniously. What we design and produce are basically things that are not currently on the market, so every series comes out, All have been thoroughly researched and inspected, and the selection may be modern technology or ancient craftsmanship. For example, when we decided to use gold leaf, we asked the old French workshops to re-use the original production methods that they had stopped using. ’”
Miuccia Prada’s design reputation has risen rapidly with her boundless imagination and creativity, but she has not been paralyzed by honor. She is keenly aware that only doing luggage business will not fundamentally change the situation of PRADA. After careful consideration, she decided to enter the shoe and clothing industry. Prada held her first women’s wear conference in the autumn and winter of 1989, launching the PRADA advanced ready-to-wear series. This attempt caused a huge sensation, and while being enthusiastically sought after by people, it also caused great controversy. Decoration prevailed in the design world in the 1990s, and mainstream brands paid attention to decoration. Prada’s anti-traditional and simple design is in stark contrast to other more emotional works of the time, and it happened to meet people’s nostalgia at that time unexpectedly, thus achieving great success. The following year, she launched her menswear collection, which was equally well received. Since then, Miuccia Prada’s restrained luxury style has become the most praised style model in the fashion industry. Prada, with its talented fashion talent, casts the distinctive features of today’s Prada (PRADA) products. Prada’s designs, though, seem a bit bizarre to the uninitiated: skirts are often too long and look dated; blouses tend to be unfeminine and unsexy; shoes are stupid and unrefined. But from the perspective of fashion development, Prada’s design represents the future trend of fashion: pure and sexy, with charming and charming colors, simple, clean, elegant and beautiful. They not only reflect the highest level of clothing production technology, but also the best interpretation of fashion charm in modern style. Prada conveys practical beauty rather than cumbersome details, and she strives to liberate people from too much restraint.
Prada pays attention to details and requires every detail to be perfect. All her products must be well-selected and exquisitely crafted. As a supplier of the Italian royal family, PRADA has used the graphic of the Savoy coat of arms and the royal coat of arms as its logo since 1913. With such a concept in mind, in the spring and summer of 2006, PRADA reproduced the historical classics again, and re-presented the PRADA Heritage Collection ladies’ handbags to the world with the skills of making royal crafts. This pursuit of perfectionism in details is the so-called low-key luxury, and it is also the reason why PRADA fans in the world have always loved it. For PRADA, elegance is an attitude, which is manifested in every nuance.
A cost-effective “buying marriage”
Prada’s career success also benefited from the full support of her husband, Patrizio Bettany. Their encounter is very interesting, it can be described as “no acquaintance without fighting”. The two met at a trade fair in 1978, when Patrizio Bettany was the owner of a tanneries copying Prada products. Prada asked: “How dare you imitate my stuff?” She wanted to give her political theory a chance to make this person who dared to violate her design work look good. Surprisingly, Patrizio Bettany cleverly turned hostility into friendship, and successfully obtained the authorization of Prada to produce her handbags. Since then, the two have been in frequent contact and exchanged views on many issues. They found that the two had many common hobbies, and finally achieved a beautiful marriage.
Compared with the identity of Prada’s famous family, Patrizio Bettany is a veritable grassroots. He was born in an ordinary family in 1947, lost his father when he was young, and his mother ran a shoe store. Perhaps from humble beginnings, Patrizio Bettany started his own business as a teenager, producing handbags and belts. At the age of 20, he started to do OEM for some brands, until he met Prada, his life began to turn to another track.
It is not fair to say that Patrizio Bettany was a high-ranking lady. Patrizio Bettany is very talented in business. Since the two took over PRADA in 1978, Patrizio Bettany has been in charge of the daily operation and management of PRADA, while Prada has concentrated on the study of political science. At that time, PRADA was facing the plight of bankruptcy, and its operations were struggling to maintain. What Patrizio Bettany took over was a hot potato. He relied on his management skills to make PRADA turn the corner. Later, after Prada got his Ph.D., his main focus was on design work.
Prada and Patrizio Bettany are a couple who are flying together in love and career. In 1986, they officially entered the palace of marriage. Patrizio Bettany once said with a smile: “Miuccia is definitely a first-class tailor and designer. I fell in love with her at first sight, because I firmly believed that I would not lose everything just to buy clothes for her. This business It’s really a good deal.” This joke became a good story in the circle. Both husband and wife are people with very distinct and strong personalities. They have their own unique views on issues, so disputes inevitably arise. Everyone in the fashion industry knows that the Pradas like to bicker, sometimes even loudly, but the two always find a balance to resolve conflicts. Prada said: “I am in charge of design, but very interested in doing business; The two are arguing loudly, this must be true.” The couple have a clear division of labor, Prada is the fashion soul of PRADA, she is mainly responsible for product design and research and development, and Patrizio Bettany is in charge of the company’s operation and management , The husband and wife sing and the wife follows, making PRADA flourish. To borrow Patrizio Bettany’s own words “she by intuition, I by reason”. In life, the two are also extremely harmonious, living happily in a 19th-century villa with their two children. They often entertain guests and share their happiness with everyone. At this time, Patrizio Bettany turned into a super chef, preparing sumptuous dinners for relatives and friends in the kitchen; Prada turned into a kind housewife, shuttling around the guests, preparing things for the guests, Schedule their activities.
PRADA Fashion Kingdom
Prada doesn’t like to use luxury to position her design. What she pursues is the taste of life, and she is committed to promoting this taste to everyone. Although PRADA’s products have been a great success and have been greatly sought after by the public, fashion people must act as soon as possible if they want to buy this world-class new season. Because the new products will be sold out quickly as soon as they are launched, and there will be no replenishment. However, the price of PRADA products is not affordable by the general public. Although many young girls love it, they are often powerless in the face of expensive prices. So in 1992, Prada launched Miu Miu, a lower-priced brand, as a second-tier brand. The target market and design inspiration are aimed at young female middle school students, and the price is more affordable. Miu Miu is Prada’s nickname, inspired by her own wardrobe, and implanted the concept of big women dreaming back into little girls into the brand.
As a secondary brand, Miu Miu is closely related to Prada’s own childhood experience. Prada lives in a typical Catholic family. Regarding her childhood life, she often sums it up in one word, that is, rigid. Although my mother likes beautiful fashion, she prefers to dress decently and be polite. She even stipulates that Miuccia can only wear brown flat shoes. Having a pair of pink shoes was once Prada’s childhood dream. Most of her childhood clothes were blue, red and beige, the most gorgeous of which was a blue pleated skirt. Prada pours her innocent and frank emotions like a girl on Miu Miu. It seems that she puts the inexhaustible or unusable emotions on Miu Miu. She likes to choose beautiful colors and hopes to diversify Bright colors bring people a happy mood. With PRADA’s platform and excellent craftsmanship, coupled with PRADA’s originality, Miu Miu became one of the most representative Italian brands in the 1990s. The style is light and simple, using light and elegant fabrics, such as cotton yarn, silk, etc., with smooth lines and simple styles, avoiding unnecessary decorative details as much as possible, and giving people a feeling of inheriting PRADA’s simple fashion on the whole. But simple and simple, Miu Miu is relatively youthful in style, and the colors are mostly plain colors, and the black of the main line PRADA is rarely used. Coupled with cute patterns, Miu Miu provides cute and wearable clothes for women who are still young at heart. . Full of youthful and lively campus atmosphere, it is more youthful and out-of-the-way, opening up a new sky for PRADA’s brand style.
If you describe PRADA and Miu Miu with different stages in women’s life, then Miu Miu is undoubtedly a young girl in her twenties, and PRADA is a middle-aged professional woman. Miu Miu is cheerful, lively, colorful, full of curiosity and enthusiasm for everything in life, and strives to meet all the challenges in life. PRADA is mature and stable. After years of baptism, it has its own views and choices on life and career. It is low-key and restrained, and the price is of course much higher. Prada perfectly interprets women’s life through PRADA and Miu Miu.
For PRADA supporters around the world, PRADA, which emphasizes modernity and trendiness, is not just clothes and handbags, but also an attitude towards life, the pursuit of exquisite life, and a synonym for modern taste.
