Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
ITALIAN OF THE WEEK

FASHION

Prada: one of the world’s most powerful women

Despite being described as a "reluctant heiress", Miuccia Prada has taken the reigns of her family's fashion house and made it a global brand. The Local looks at the life of the billionaire designer, on and off the catwalk.

Published: 30 May 2014 16:47 CEST
Prada: one of the world's most powerful women
Miuccia Prada on the catwalk in 2005. Photo: Paolo Cocco/AFP

Who is Miuccia Prada?

She is the fashion designer behind the famous Italian brand Prada, founded by her grandfather in 1913.

Why is she in the news?

Prada was the only Italian to make it onto a list of the world’s most powerful women, compiled by US business journal Forbes.

READ MORE: Italian fashionista among most powerful women

Why did she make it onto the list?

Prada has made it to the top of her trade and, as put by Forbes, is ““widely credited with recreating the brand's image, making it synonymous with understated, clean-cut elegance.”
She is also one of the richest people in the world, with a net worth of $10.4 billion (€7.6 billion).

How does she stand out from the fashionable crowd?

Despite being born into the Prada family, she didn’t immediately go into fashion.

Described by Vogue magazine as a “Communist-leaning, Yves Saint Laurent-wearing reluctant heiress”, Prada instead went to Milan University where she studied political science. 

She then began designing accessories for the fashion house, but it wasn’t until the late 1970s that she started taking a greater interest in Prada.

What happened then?

She fell in love. Prada met Patrizio Bertelli, owner of leather goods companies, and became his business partner.

According to her company profile, at this point in her career, “together with Patrizio Bertelli, she becomes the driving force of the development and international expansion of Prada.”

When the couple were not busy taking over the fashion world, they married and had two children.

How has she changed Prada?

Prada stepped into the spotlight at the end of the 1970s with the brand’s first women’s footwear collection, before jumping onto the international scene by opening stores in London, Madrid, New York, Paris and Tokyo.

She put her stamp on the fashion house in 1993 by creating a new brand, Miu Miu, and has since overseen new ventures including Prada sunglasses and mobile phones.

What has she done outside of fashion?

In 1993 she and Bertelli created a cultural foundation, Fondazione Prada, which began by hosting art exhibitions. It has since been expanded to encompass other areas, including architecture and cinema, and in 2011 plans were unveiled for a new exhibition space in Venice.

Has she faced controversy?

Yes. In February, international media reported that an Italian prosecutor had opened an investigation into Prada over alleged tax evasion.

The company reportedly agreed last year to pay around €400 million to the tax authorities, in a deal which would see a holding company transferred from Luxembourg to Italy, the Financial Times said. Prada’s legal team, however, told the newspaper they were not aware of the probe.

How is Prada viewed in the fashion industry?

“She has often led like the Pied Piper, with the fashion pack zigzagging tightly behind,” according to Vogue.

In December, Prada was named International Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards, described as being “renowned for her season-defining collections that consistently set the agenda of the fashion industry.” 

Gywneth Paltrow with Miuccia Prada (@Prada) – winner of the International Designer of the Year #BFA pic.twitter.com/SnUejKNK8C

— BFC (@BFC) December 2, 2013

Don't miss a story about Italy – Join us on Facebook and Twitter.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

FASHION

Paris exhibition celebrates 100 years of French Vogue

A new exhibition in Paris will tell the story of 100 years of French Vogue - from the post-war 'New Look' of Christian Dior through the sexual liberation of the 1960s to the dangling-cigarette waifs of the 2000s.

Published: 7 October 2021 08:21 CEST
French Vogue celebrates 100 years
French Vogue celebrates 100 years. Photo: Thomas Olva/AFP

But as well as celebrating the magazine’s storied history, the exhibit comes at a time of turbulence for the publication.

Just last month, it was confirmed that its editor of 10 years, Emmanuelle Alt, was out and wouldn’t be replaced.

She was not alone.

Looking to cut costs, owner Conde Nast International has axed editors across Europe over the past year, and put international Vogue editions under the direct control of global editorial director, Anna Wintour, in New York.

New York-based Anna Wintour now has overall control of French Vogue. Photo by Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP

Like much of the media industry, Vogue is struggling with tumbling sales and ad revenue in the digital era.

But the latest twist is also part of the endless push and pull between New York and Paris going back to its early days.

“The whole history of French Vogue is one of back-and-forth with Conde Nast in New York – growing more independent for a while, then being reined back in,” said Sylvie Lecallier, curator of the new exhibition, “Vogue Paris 1920-2020″, which opened this weekend after a year’s delay due to the pandemic.

The Paris edition was often the loftier, more bohemian sibling to its more hard-nosed New York version.

But it was also the hotbed in which much of 20th century style and womenhood came to be defined.

“Paris was the place to hunt out talent and content and bring it to New York,” said Lecallier.

The exhibition charts the evolution from art deco drawings of the 1920s through the erotic image-making of photographers like Helmut Newton in the 1960s and 1970s.

Its last peak was under editor Carine Roitfeld in the 2000s, who brought back a provocative Gallic identity by ridding the newsroom of foreign staff and becoming a fashion icon in her own right.

Her successor, Alt, was a quieter presence, though she still oversaw key moments including its first transgender cover star, Brazilian Valentina Sampaio, in 2017.

But internet culture has created “a perfect storm” for Vogue, says media expert Douglas McCabe of Enders Analysis.

“The first 80 years of Vogue’s life, it had the market to itself, it was the bible for fashion,” McCabe told AFP.

“But online today, there are so many other ways to get your information. Influencers, Instagram, YouTube — everyone’s a threat.”

In a world where new fashion trends can blow up around the world in seconds, it has become much harder for a monthly magazine to set the pace.

“It’s not that they can’t survive for another 100 years — but they will be differently sized,” McCabe said.

Vogue has tried to branch out into different areas, including events.

“I used to work for a magazine, and today I work for a brand,” Alt said on the eve of French Vogue’s 1,000th issue in 2019.

But the big money was always in print, and Vogue Paris sales are dropping steadily from 98,345 in 2017 to 81,962 to 2020, according to data site ACPM.

It is perhaps unsurprising that the new top job in Paris, redefined as “head of editorial content”, went to Eugenie Trochu, who was key to building the magazine’s online presence.

She declared herself “thrilled to be part of Vogue’s international transformation”.

For the curator of the exhibition, it is ironic timing.

“We had no idea it would end like this when we started work on the exhibition,” said Lecallier.

“Who knows where it will go from here.”

The exhibition Vogue Paris 1920-2020 is at the Palais Galliera in Paris’ 16th arrondissement. The gallery is open 10am to 6pm Tuesday to Sunday and is closed on Mondays. Tickets for the exhibition are €14 (€12 for concessions and under 18s go free) and must be reserved online in advance. 

SHOW COMMENTS