PRADA

Foundations

The company was started by Fratelli Prada (English: Prada Brothers) and by Mario Prada in as a leathergoods shop in MIlan, Italy. His shop sold leather goods and imported English steamer trunks and handbags. Fratelli Prada gained reputation. Mario Prada did not believe in women interaction within business, and so he prevented female family members from entering into his workshop. After his death in the mid-1950s, Mario's son harbored no interest in the business. So ironically, it was Mario's daughter-in-law who took the helm of Prada, and maintained it for almost twenty years. Her own daughter, joined the company in 1970. Miuccia began making waterproof backpacks out of Pocone. She met Patrizio Bertelli in 1977, an Italian who had begun his own leathergoods business at the age of 17, and he joined the company soon on. He advised Miuccia—and she followed the advice—on better decisions for the Prada company. It was his advice to discontinue importing English goods and to change the existing luggage styles.