LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Prada: Miuccia Prada
built 228 days ago
Prada is the first name in fashion handbags and has become a worldwide empire. Prada has stores in almost every country in the western world and Prada gets plenty of free advertising from the many celebrities who carry Prada handbags. The Prada look has certainly evolved and diversified over the years, and Miuccia gets the credit for steering Prada in the right direction and maintained the highest quality. The Wall Street Journal has named Miuccia one of the thirty most powerful women in Europe.
Source:
In 1913, Mario Prada established a family-run leather-goods company in Milan. But the label’s foray beyond luggage didn’t happen until Mario’s granddaughter Miuccia Prada took the helm in 1978, with her husband Patrizio Bertelli taking over the business aspect. Prada made its official ready-to-wear launch on the Milan runway in1989. Since then, the label and its now-iconic upside-down triangle symbol have been at the front of fashion-forward design, influencing runways around the globe. Today, the company continues to conquer new territory, including menswear, childrenswear, a sportswear, and myriad beauty ventures. Every aspect of Prada, from the buttons of a coat to the design of its New York flagship—the famous brainchild of architect Rem Koolhaas—illustrates the careful eye and deliberate study of Miuccia Prada.
Source:
Mario Prada's granddaughter, Miuccia Prada, took over the Prada company in 1978. Miuccia had spent five years studying at Teatro Piccolo in Milan, and earned a PhD in political science. Even with this unlikely background, Miuccia had an innate ability to recognize good fashion and she became the steering force in Prada's emergence into the world of haute couture. She began with luxury tote bags and backpacks made from sleek black nylon material. Around this same time Miuccia married Patrizio Bertelli, who assumed the position of business manager, which enabled Miuccia to focus on design and the perfection of the new Prada look and image. It was her black nylon "Pocone" material handbag that in 1985 became an overnight sensation and launched the new Prada into the spotlight.
Source:
In the 1980s Miuccia Prada, with her distinctive regard for clothing, accessories, and footwear, began to develop and market an innovative line of fashion accessories eventually followed by a line of ready-to-wear clothes and footwear. In a magazine article, she was quoted as saying that her designs had freedom of movement, freedom from definition, and freedom from constriction. Bohemians, the avant-garde, the beatniks had been constant motifs in her designs. Her philosophy of dress ... includes aspects developed and influenced by her own free-spirited personality. A fashion writer once remarked that "her clothes don't necessarily have misfit connotations, nor are particularly for young women, they're like uniforms for the slightly disenfranchised."
Source:
Attracted to these same aspects but integrating her own design philosophy, his granddaughter, Miuccia Prada, proceeded to enrich and expand this inherited legacy in 1978. Initially she had dismissed any involvement with the family business as less important than the goals she had set for herself. She received a degree in political science, followed by a period of study in mime at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano in preparation for a career in acting. By her mid-20s she was a committed participant in the political activities of the 1970s in Milan. Though one who had always drawn inspiration from history, "she ... refused to reject that part of herself." She was taught to value quality materials and craftsmanship, in a city noted for traditional tailor's ateliers and elegant fabric showrooms.
Source:
Miuccia Prada uses a lot of crunchy polyester, parachute nylon and other synthetic fabrics. She likes battleship green, browns, white, cream, and black colours. Her clothes, though often deceptively plain looking, have become widely influential. She gives traditional garments a modern handling, like trimming nylon parkas with mink and making trench coats and twin sets out of silk faille. It seems that the whole world craves Prada's ice-cool minimalism and deadpan eroticism.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Miuccia Prada