The story of Miuccia Prada, heiress in spite of herself. She succeeded in extending the Prada empire beyond the traditional borders of fashion.

Miuccia Prada, born Maria Bianchi was born on May 10, 1949 in Milan, Italy. Miuccia is the granddaughter of Mario Prada, who is the founder of the Prada company created in 1913. She was born into a Catholic family, which resulted in a particularly strict education. Miuccia seems to rebel during her adolescence. During this period of her life, Miuccia gave free rein to her feminist commitments for which she did not hesitate to militate. Her communist convictions also led her to join the Italian Communist Party.

She had another dream

“ Business was, for me, the worst possible idea. I wanted to do anything possible except fashion.”

Later, Miuccia developed a passion for mime, which she studied at the Piccolo Teatro. Miuccia wanted to become an actress. In 1971, however, she gave up this dream in order to join the family company, where she was in charge of creating a shoe collection.

In 1978, with the help of her husband, Miuccia took over the management of the family business. Miuccia also took the reins of the artistic direction of Prada. She puts the choice of materials and fabrics for Prada collections at the heart of her concerns.

But the Prada boom is also due to Patrizio Bertelli, her companion and executive chef of the brand, who helps her manage the business side. It was he who pushed her, in 1985, to design pieces of clothing and bags for Prada.

Her first success at Prada was with her Pocono bags, made of a nylon material whose main characteristic is its silky aspect. By using this textile fiber, Miuccia immediately announced the color: her creations would be placed under the seal of avant-gardism. She will never stop innovating and surprising.

The Pocono

In 1984, Miuccia Prada revolutionized the house, fashion and leather goods. The secret of this revolution is a bag. The Vela bag, to be exact. A style of backpack first available in black and brown, which happens to be worked in a nylon specially designed and imagined by Prada. A luxury bag cut from nylon, so it took the audacity of Prada’s pretty ugly concept to impose it on the world. Because the Vela is very different from the shiny, blinged-out bags of the time, « Suddenly, nylon seemed more intriguing than Haute Couture fabrics. I decided to introduce it to the runway and it challenged, even changed, the traditional, conservative idea of luxury. I’m still obsessed with it, » confided Miuccia Prada years later.

And it’s true that on the catwalk, the Pocono has never gone unnoticed.

For the fall 1994 collection, Miuccia Prada took the Pocono out of the Vela bag to spread its cachet in luxurious silhouettes.

It was this collection that spread the concept of ugly chic... Jackets and vests, dresses and skirt-and-suit ensembles… This collection was enough to make Pocono the iconic Prada material. An ingenious and stunning material that marries perfectly the detour of the codes of the high bourgeoisie.

And the modern history of Prada is undoubtedly linked to that of Pocono Nylon. It was in 1980 that she had the idea of developing this material a little less snobbish, and less off-putting than high quality leather … Durable, waterproof, practical and daring … The critics salute, the fashion world is in turmoil – and the Pocono became essential.

Its message too – nowadays, materials and conventions of luxury are hijacked. At the origin of the monochrome look, the Pocono accompanied minimalism, both in the cut and in the monochrome … A minimalist born in response to the maximalism of the 80s. And we notice well the quirky but timeless elegance of Pocono. For Fall/Winter 2018/19, Prada has thus praised this key material that has erected the house in the pantheon of fashion.

“ I have a passion for nylon – to die for. Nylon is emblematic of an industrial look and when we started doing it, it was completely new.”

The rise of Prada and the birth of MIUMIU

In 1993, Miuccia took on two new challenges. This was the year she created the Miu Miu brand, which was more provocative and less classic than the Prada brand. With this new brand, Miuccia wanted to give herself the opportunity to take more risks.

That same year, she presented her first collection for men. In 1998, Miuccia began to develop a women’s ready-to-wear collection.

Once again, success crowned Miuccia’s work and she redoubled her efforts to diversify Prada’s activities. Prada gradually became a reference in beauty, sunglasses and trendy sportswear.

Miuccia also worked to make Prada a fashion empire. This has resulted in the acquisition of several fashion houses such as Helmut Lang and Azzedine Alaïa, houses to which she has instilled the anti-conformist spirit that characterizes her and the fierce desire to always stay one step ahead of competing fashion houses.

At Prada, it is quickly understood that fashion can be a weapon for women. And that’s probably how we realize that Miuccia Prada’s feminist years are far from over. « I try to be political as much as possible through my work, but not in an obvious way, because I think that the use of fashion for politics must be subtle, » she said in an interview last March.