Prada

About the house

Prada began in Milan in 1913 as a leather goods shop called Fratelli Prada, started by Mario Prada and his brother Martino. The first shop sat inside the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, and a second boutique opened in the same arcade in 1983.

Miuccia Prada, Mario's granddaughter, joined the company in 1970 and took over the family-owned luxury goods manufacturer in 1978. Patrizio Bertelli, who ran a leather goods business of his own, met her in 1977; they married in 1987. Her first successful handbag line, from 1985, was made of black, finely woven nylon. In 2002 she opened a contemporary art museum, the Fondazione Prada.

The group grew by acquisition. In 1999 it bought a majority stake in Helmut Lang and 83% of the English shoemaker Church & Co, and joined LVMH in buying a stake in Fendi. Prada listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in June 2011, and it acquired Versace from Capri Holdings for 1.25 billion euros.

Prada Holding and Puig signed a 50-50 joint venture in May 2003 to run the beauty business, and the first Prada fragrances appeared in 2004. Trade press reported that Puig's role ended in 2018 and that L'Oréal would hold the licence from 2021, while another account has L'Oréal acquiring the licence from Puig in 2021. WWD, citing industry estimates, put Prada's fragrance revenue at about 100 million euros a year.

Daniela Andrier is the perfumer behind many Prada scents, among them Infusion d'Iris (2007) and L'Eau Ambrée. Bois de Jasmin gave Infusion d'Iris 4 out of 5 and called it a classical fragrance. Now Smell This described the amber line as modernizing traditional amber, with some of the scents seeming almost anti-commercial. Prada Candy is usually dated to 2011 and credited to Andrier, though one retail page says 2013; the house's own launch copy called it an explosion of bright pink and gold. Trade press in 2019 listed La Femme Water Splash, Candy Sugar Pop and L'Homme Absolu among the recent releases.