The Prada story began in 1913 in Milan's beautiful Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II shopping arcade, where Mario Prada sold fine walrus-leather trunks to European gentry.
Sixty-five years later, Mario's youngest granddaughter, Miuccia, took over the business and began selling the nylon tote bag that propelled the single flagship store in the Galleria to more than 100 boutiques around the world.
Prada's modern, quirky style has been perhaps the most hip and most copied in fashion in recent years.
Miuccia's path to success was circuitous: a political science doctorate, she was active in the women's lib movement and other social protests of the 1960s. The young leftist is said to have worn Yves Saint Laurent on the barricades. After a brief career as a mime (yes, that's right, Marcel Marceau-style), she joined her mother working in the Galleria. In 1978, the 28-year-old Miuccia formed an alliance with her future husband, Patrizio Bertelli, who owned a Tuscan leather goods concern. Bertelli soon became the firm's autocratic and visionary leader.
Prada began making footwear in 1983 and clothes in 1989. The firm had sales of $1.42 billion in 2000, a 57% increase from 1999, and operating profit of $265 million, a 37% increase from the previous year.
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