Miuccia Prada has turned an Italian family-owned leather goods business into a fashion empire. She is the only female designer selected in the “100 Most Influential People in the World” by Time Magazine. She also made the Forbes 400 list of the world’s richest people, and the Wall Street Journal listed her as one of the 30 most powerful women in Europe.
Miuccia Prada is often described as a “hard drive” in the fashion world, because her clothes are a combination of intuitive, sharp grasp of the times, and show a huge cultural heritage.
The PRADA company was founded in 1913 by Miuccia’s grandfather Mario Prada and his younger brother Martino. They opened a boutique specializing in luxury goods in the iconic Emmanuel II arcade in Milan, Italy. Soon, the boutique became a favorite place for aristocrats and big capitalists, earning the title of “Official Supplier to the Italian Royal Family”.
With his younger brother Martino going to politics, Mario carried forward the company’s business alone. His leather accessories are exquisitely crafted, making the PRADA brand the “Hermes” of Milan. When Mario died in 1958, his two daughters, Nanda and Luisa, took over the mantle. Nanda, who was not married, adopted Luisa’s daughter, Miuccia, through legal procedures. In this way, Miuccia can take the surname “Prada” and become Miuccia Prada.
Young Miuccia Prada excelled academically and was the first to wear hippie clothes in high school. “Influenced by my parents, I used to be old-fashioned, but when I was about fourteen, I wanted to be different. I wanted to be the first to eat crabs. Always be different, this is The eternal pursuit of my life,” she said frankly. Miuccia wanted to go to the Cobrella Academy of Fine Arts, but her parents were strongly against it. After graduating from high school, she studied political science at the University of Milan, while earnestly studying drama art and pantomime in the small theater.
She explained: “Theatre is where everything happens, where avant-garde ideas are expressed. In this area, I think pantomime is the most peculiar. It represents the zeitgeist. We wanted to do something different, or weird. thing.”
She joined the Italian Communist Party because she likes politics and cares about social issues. At the same time, she also has a deep love for the superficial issue of appearance she should theoretically bash: fashion. This contradiction makes her very painful: “Wanting to be a costume designer is the worst thing for me. I think it’s stupid and conservative. I’m ashamed of it. But the environment at home is the opposite. : A love of good things, a flair for fashion, I love it all.” Another obvious question: “In politics, there should be a unified point of view. And I always think of one thing and one thing at the same time. It’s the opposite of it. Once I have an idea, all sorts of different arguments start fighting in my head. I’m a divided person. That’s what my character is, and it’s a fate I can’t get rid of in my life.”
1970s As the years drew to a close, Miuccia also ended her political career and began working with her mother, Luisa. In 1978, she officially took over the family business.
Miuccia’s designer career began with designing bags. By chance, she discovered a nylon fabric originally developed to make Italian military parachutes. The material is light, strong, waterproof and non-flammable. She made Prada’s first nylon backpack from the plain black fabric called Vera. The only visible decoration on the bag is the brand logo. Although the bag is very simple in appearance, her sewing is exquisite and strong. Fabrics that are delicately woven on cutting-edge looms look like silk. Miuccia explained that she wanted to make the impossible possible and bring nylon into the luxury category.
Backpacks and the next line of bags in black nylon have become fashion must-haves. Before long, almost all supermodels were appearing in fashion magazines around the world wearing Prada bags. Miuccia has designed backpacks for the busy urban woman in a variety of styles: classic designs, haute couture details, double nylon ruffles, metal engraved mini padlocks, glossy leather straps with cashmere.
After her success, she was inspired. Her first ready-to-wear collection was launched in the autumn-winter 1988 market. Italian fashion of the period preached a luxurious and sexy style, but for Miuccia it was all weird: “I used to have a prejudice: fashion is superficial, boring, simple and unserious.” “It was a real tragedy for me,” she says emotionally. She wanted a minimal, rigorous product line.
This allowed her to create what was truly “cool” in the luxury world of the 1990s. Her credo is simple: “It’s only when the clothes don’t show the body that people can show their soul. Women should stop wearing those sexy clothes. The more voluptuous the skirt, the less sexy the woman who wears it.” After a period of excess luxury, this new minimalism, with its clean lines, a mix of muted tones and earth tones, and impeccable workmanship, has become the hallmark of the PRADA brand.
But what makes Murcia most distinctive is the way the materials are used. She explained: “I work with fabrics most of the time, and when I’m doing a clothing line, 90 percent of the work is on fabrics. I’m constantly experimenting. Like, I’m the first A designer who uses curly mohair like teddy bears, and everyone thinks it’s not a good seller. As a result, they are a bestseller. I also mix different materials, such as satin and cashmere with high tech Fibers.”
Miuccia also experimented with combinations of translucent latex, plastic, and wild silk satin, decorated with mirror fragments and film rolls. This unconventional mix of materials, considered by some to be an expression of obvious bad taste, has easily entered fashion history. She says with a bit of humor: “When I design clothes, I sometimes use fabrics that can be called ugly—almost to the limit. But the end result looks good!”
MUSIA, 1990s Pushed his own innovative creed to the fashion industry. Her burr buckles, nylon tunic, uniform-style, latex shirts and cropped trousers all set the rhythm. Clear lines and strong structure are her constant styles.
Business woman, intellectual, strong and strict, without ornaments, never sexy, this is the concept of “PRADA woman”. Florence Müller, a teacher at the French Academy of Fashion, analyzed: “The only thread that connects collection after collection is the definition of the concept of a woman, a thoughtful professional woman, not a vase.” Miuccia Prada contradicts it By doing so, he has established himself as an intellectual fashion designer. “I love the irony in my work,” she said. “That’s what interests me, and likewise, I love analyzing what’s trendy and what’s not, and why people like certain things. I love playing with clichés.” “In fashion, when you want to do something, you already think about the next step. It can be a little crazy. Every day, I’m thinking about what’s new. It’s a constant anxiety, maybe It is also a microcosm of the anxiety of the whole society,” she added.
It is one of her tenets to never lie on your own merits.
