Prada

Prada began in 1913 as Fratelli Prada, a shop opened by the brothers Mario and Martino Prada in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the glass-roofed arcade at the heart of Milan. It sold leather bags, trunks, travel cases and fine accessories, many imported from England, to the city's affluent clientele, and in 1919 it was named an official supplier to the Italian royal household, which allowed it to add the House of Savoy's arms and knotted rope to its logo.

For half a century it remained an elegant, slightly old-fashioned luggage business. Mario's daughter Luisa ran it after the war, and in 1970 her daughter, Miuccia Prada, joined the company. Miuccia had a doctorate in political science, had trained as a mime and had been active in left-wing politics; she took over from her mother in 1978. That decade she met Patrizio Bertelli, a Tuscan leather-goods entrepreneur who became her business partner and husband, and who built Prada's manufacturing and retail network.

Miuccia's first breakthrough was a material. In the mid-1980s she made backpacks and bags from a tough black nylon, Pocone, previously used for military tents, finished with a small triangular metal logo. The idea that an industrial fabric could be luxurious was radical then and is a commonplace now. Shoes followed in 1984 and women's ready-to-wear in 1988, with dropped waists, narrow belts and a deliberately awkward, intelligent take on femininity that critics labelled "ugly chic". Miu Miu, named after her childhood nickname, launched in 1993, and menswear and the Linea Rossa sports line followed in the 1990s.

Bertelli expanded aggressively, buying stakes in Helmut Lang, Jil Sander and Fendi in the late 1990s, most of which were later sold to reduce debt. The couple founded Fondazione Prada in 1993 to support contemporary art; its permanent Milan venue, designed by OMA, opened in 2015. Prada listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2011.

In February 2020 the house announced that Raf Simons, formerly of Dior and Calvin Klein, would join Miuccia Prada as co-creative director, an unusual partnership of equals that began with the spring 2021 collection. The Re-Nylon programme, using regenerated nylon from waste, has since remade the house's founding material for a new era. Andrea Guerra, formerly of Luxottica, became group chief executive in 2023, and Lorenzo Bertelli, the founders' son, is chief marketing officer and heir apparent.

In 2025 the Prada Group agreed to buy Versace from Capri Holdings for €1.25 billion, completing the acquisition in December, its largest deal to date. More than a century after the Galleria shop opened, the house still occupies it, and Miuccia Prada's habit of questioning what is considered beautiful remains its defining trait.