Why is Miucca Prada so powerful and influential?
Personality can be exposed through style and wardrobe content and no matter how bright or eccentric it may be the outcome is always beautiful. At least this is the case for Italian fashion designer Miucca Prada. Her fearlessness within the fashion industry is what she is well-known for and her ability of being able to continuously come up with new and ‘ahead of the times’ ideas for her business is legendary.
Born in Italy, Miucca Prada didn’t expect to find herself in the fashion industry. After she’d attended the University of Milan, where she earned herself a Doctorate in Political Science and was a passionate and enthusiastic feminist, she decided to train as a mime, ending up in Milan’s Piccolo Teatro. However, she was the unlikely heir of her family’s luxury leather goods business where they manufactured handmade suitcases and handbags for Milan's elite consumers. It wasn’t long before she began working for the company and soon after she decided to update the old-fashioned collections by redesigning them with her own unique and original designs. She started with lightweight backpacks and handbags, all made of nylon and with simple labels. In 1985 they became a massive hit. What was so unusual about Prada's simple backpacks was that they were completely different and minimalist, compared to the Judith Leiber jewelled clutch bags of the Power Dressing '80s. To say that she had no history or proper training in designing clothes or using a sewing machine, consumers loved her first ready-to-wear womenswear collection (‘Uniforms for the slightly disenfranchised’) that she showcased in 1988 and with the help of her husband, Patrizio Bertelli.
It wasn't long before the business grew into a fashion powerhouse. In 1992, the introduction of her quintessential, subsidiary label, Miu Miu - so named after the family nickname - was made, giving the consumers even more taste of Miuccia Prada's own personal style and personality. Vogue Paris said, ‘Miu Miu was established as more colourful and avant-garde than its sister brand. The image set by the brand, very feminine, anti-conformist and even rebellious at times, quickly gained a large following of women who were weary of suits and dark colours.’ When Prada was at its most minimalistic, Miu Miu went against that with its more complex designs and brighter colours. In both collections we get to see both sides of Miuccia Prada's radical vision.
The rebelliousness of Miucca Prada is what makes her brand and designs so profound, and the fact that she refuses to live up to expectations, likes to break rules and go against what the industry expects of her is why she is such a powerful and influential designer. In the words of Miucca Prada, ‘I always wanted to be different. I always wanted to be first.’
