Fashion Designers: Miuccia Prada

Miuccia was an unlikely candidate for a fashion luminary. She earned a PhD in political science, was a member of the Italian Communist party, and spent years performing as a mime. In 1978, her mother passed down leadership of the family luxury luggage company founded by Miuccia’s grandfather in Milan in1913. Miuccia’s first success came in the 1980s with utilitarian nylon handbags that quickly became must-haves among the fashionable elite. She soon added an equally sensible line of beautifully made women’s ready-to-wear, later adding a men’s line. Both achieved the same iconic status as her original nylon bags. View the most recent runway shows from Milan on Style.com.

The Prada name has become so iconic that the scathing novel (and subsequent film), “The Devil Wears Prada,” wields it to represent the pinnacle of fashion success and power.

In 1992 Prada launched the youthful, less expensive Miu Miu label, characterized by bohemian prints and painterly colors. The Miu Miu website highlights the beautiful, drama-charged photos of the brand’s image campaigns.

And for more Prada eye candy, view the Prada site, with its whimsical videos and images of the ever-changing wallpaper installed at the Broadway store.

In the past, Prada has turned some of their international city boutiques into art exhibition space. “Waist Down” examined the skirt, spanning the designs from the first collection in 1988 to the present. Fixtures designed by OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture; the company of Rem Koolhaas) showcased the garments full of air; fluttering in the breeze; hanging displayed on the wall; or pictured in large runway cutouts.

This is not the only Prada contribution to the design community. Miuccia and her husband and business partner, Patrizio Bertelli, established the Prada Foundation in 1995. Directed by the legendary critic and curator Germano Celant, the foundation sponsors exhibitions and other worthy cultural causes: financing a university chair in aesthetics, sponsoring a film production, and exhibiting works of contemporary artists using current technology.

For a collection of New York Times articles discussing Miuccia Prada’s work and contributions, see their archive containing more than 50 articles.