Prada Is Innovating in the Reality Space

Prada…Invented Reality? Most fashion designers are like, My signature is tailoring, or I innovated in the jackets space. But Miuccia Prada, the goddess of light and knowledge and nylon, tells the Business of Fashion that she introduced reality to fashion. (Insert mind-blown emoji here.) She speaks about how fashion was once an industry for a cosseted group of the rich and royal, but the clothing that appealed to them is no longer relevant, which is why she demands ugliness from her clothing: “That beautiful elegance made sense for privileged people, an isolated group of princesses and the noble and rich, but today to follow that kind of beauty? You can refer to it as a symbol of the past. But it’s totally out of reality…. I think if I did something in fashion, it was introducing reality.”

She also speaks on the brand’s racist Pradamalia accessories, saying that her brand’s customer is increasingly global and that “I agree with the need of a whole new education. What I don’t know is how to solve the problem. It’s difficult to put it in place. Racism is a very complicated and deep-rooted issue, and we need to understand how fashion can contribute to the conversation.”