1913

Fratelli Prada in the Galleria

The story begins in 1913, when Mario Prada and his brother Martino opened Fratelli Prada, a boutique of fine leather goods, travel trunks, silver and crystal, inside Milan's magnificent Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II — the very arcade where the brand's flagship still stands today.

Importing the finest English leather and exotic materials, the house quickly earned the patronage of the European aristocracy and was appointed official supplier to the Italian Royal House. The Savoy coat of arms and its knotted-rope motif granted to the house would later inspire the iconic triangular enamel plaque — the seal that still crowns every Prada creation.

1978 – 1980s

Miuccia and the Nylon Revolution

In 1978, Mario's granddaughter Miuccia Prada — a trained mime with a PhD in political science — reluctantly inherited the family business. Together with Patrizio Bertelli, her partner in life and in strategy, she would transform a sleepy leather house into the most intellectually formidable brand in fashion.

Her first and most radical act was also her most brilliant: rejecting the cult of precious leather, she turned to Pocono nylon, an industrial parachute fabric once used for military tents. The result — the sleek black nylon backpack and handbag of 1985, sealed with the silver triangle — proved that luxury is not a material but an idea. She also revived Mario's patented cross-hatch Saffiano leather, fusing heritage and rebellion into one language.

1990s – 2000s

The Intellectual Rebellion

Having debuted her first women's ready-to-wear in 1988, Miuccia spent the following decades dismantling the very notion of "good taste." Her minimalist, deliberately "ugly chic" aesthetic — muted earth tones, severe lines, fabrics that resisted easy flattery — challenged the eye and redefined sophistication for a thinking woman.

• Miu Miu (early 1990s): Named after Miuccia's own nickname, a younger, more romantic and playful counterpoint to the main line's cerebral cool.
• Linea Rossa / Prada Sport (1997): High-performance technical fabrics marked by a single vivid red line, inventing the category of luxury sportswear.
• Fondazione Prada: Miuccia and Bertelli fused fashion with contemporary art, transforming the house into a true cultural institution.

"Ugly is attractive, ugly is exciting. Because ugly is human." — Miuccia Prada

Today

A Dialogue Without End

In 2020, Prada made fashion history once more by appointing Raf Simons as co-creative director alongside Miuccia — an unprecedented dialogue between two of the era's greatest minds. Each collection is conceived as a conversation, a tension between her humanist irony and his disciplined purity.

Today's Prada distils its identity into sharp, intelligent tailoring, the enduring triangle plaque, and the reborn nylon — now reimagined as Re-Nylon, regenerated from recycled ocean plastics, marrying heritage with responsibility. From the concrete-and-gold-leaf halls of the Fondazione Prada in Milan, shaped by OMA / Rem Koolhaas, the house continues to ask the only question Miuccia has ever truly cared about: what does it mean to be modern?

"What you wear is how you present yourself to the world, especially today, when human contacts are so quick. Fashion is instant language." — Miuccia Prada