Fashion

GLOBAL INVESTOR 1.16 — 57
PRADA’S INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO GROWS
In the late 1990s, Prada sought to acquire a port folio
of leading luxury brands in the manner of companies
such as LVMH and the Gucci Group. An investment
in shares in the Gucci Group in 1997 led industry
analysts to speculate that Bertelli was attempting
a takeover of the company. This never materialized,
but shares in brands including Helmut Lang, Fendi,
Jil Sander (purchased in 1999 for a reported USD
100 million) and English footwear brand Church’s
soon followed. In 2001, Prada sold their 25.5% stake
in Fendi to LVMH for a reported USD 225 million in
order to help ease a buildup of debt caused by such
continuous investment (a debt reportedly totaling
GBP 1.2 bn). By 2006, Prada had sold Helmut Lang
and Jil Sander, alongside a 45% stake in Church’s.
In 2011, Prada listed 20% of its shares on the Hong
Kong stock exchange. Today, Prada Group comprises
Prada, Miu Miu, Church’s and Car Shoe, inventor
of the original driving moccasin with rubber-stud-perforated
uppers. In March 2014, Prada
also acquired 80% of Angelo Marchesi, the historic
Milanese pastry shop, with an eye to expanding
its celebrated imprint. A second shop was opened
on Milan’s Via Monte Napoleone in 2015.
While such investments underlie the company’s
business structure, Prada’s passion for contemporary
art, architecture and film remains at the
forefront of the creative vision of Prada and Bertelli.
Fondazione Prada, founded in 1993, was established
in order to nurture both the ideas and creative
practices of artists, architects, filmmakers and
thinkers. Over the last two decades, the foundation
has been responsible for over 60 projects among
solo shows, group and research exhibitions and
special commissions in cities ranging from Milan
and Venice to Tokyo, ­Paris and London, alongside
film festivals, dance performances and conferences.
The institution’s mission statement asserts
that they “embrace the idea that culture is deeply
useful and necessary as well as attractive and engaging.
Culture should help us with our everyday
lives, and understand how we, and the world, are
changing.” With the opening of an exhibition venue
located in Ca’ Corner della Regina, a spectacular
18th-century palazzo on the Grand Canal in Venice,
in 2011 and of a new permanent cultural complex
designed by OMA in Milan in 2015, Fondazione Prada’s
range of knowledge has been expanded with
the aim of sharing new ideas and cultural stimuli.
PRADA CEMENTS ITS CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
In 2012, Prada was the subject of a major fashion
exhibition entitled “Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible
Conversations” at the Metropolitan Museum
of Art in New York. Here, an imaginary dialogue was
established between Prada and the late fashion
designer Elsa Schiaparelli, a fellow Italian renowned
for her avant-garde vision and Surrealist inspirations.
Both designers have sought to deconstruct
conventional ideas of beauty in a style that has
­become known as “ugly chic.” As Prada explained
in one of the interviews drawn on for the exhibition:
“Fashion fosters cliches of beauty, but I want to
tear them apart. An important aspect of my work is
exploring what beauty means today.” This is an
approach clearly shared by the two women: both
are known for their exacting, and sometimes difficult,
natures and staunch refusal to conform to
any prescribed notion of style, beauty, femininity
or sexuality. Schiaparelli’s design signatures also
often find a degree of resonance in Prada’s own
designs, as she draws on her witty formula of
­cartoonish prints, cheeky motifs and her “anti-fashion”
attitude.
Whether it’s a model striding the catwalk
at a Prada seasonal fashion show in Milan,
Italy or a Hollywood starlet standing on
the red carpet at the Oscars, Prada designs
are sure to turn heads.
The following year, a creative collaboration with
British artist Damien Hirst displayed particularly
potent echoes of Schiaparelli’s aesthetic. The project,
entitled Entomology, produced 20 exclusive
handbags auctioned in aid of charity, each featuring
both real and bejeweled beetles on an iconic Prada
handbag shape. Miuccia’s approach to the limitededition
range was characteristically subversive: “I
said, ‘Listen, I don’t want to do a bag.’ So I did a
bag that was so repulsive! It was so repulsive that
no woman would put a hand on it!” The bags,
however, sold out and were enthusiastically embraced
by the fashion press – unsurprising given
that 80% of Prada’s 2011 sales came from leather
accessories.
Regular collaborations with photographers and
directors such as Steven Meisel and Glen Luchford
have also produced a series of iconic advertising
imagery and short films that imbue Prada’s designs
with cultural relevance. Similarly, the contribution
of several key dresses to director Baz Luhrmann’s
2013 film adaptation of “The Great Gatsby” cemented
the significance of Prada’s modern reinterpretation
of femininity. Despite occasional design
criticisms and periods of financial complications,
Prada continues to position itself as one of the most
influential and globally successful fashion brands
of today. It draws its strength from its merging of
simplicity and luxury, innovation and classicism,
allowing it to continually blur the boundaries between
the conceptual and the commercial.
In 2012, Prada was
featured as the subject
of a major fashion
exhibition. Pictured
here, an installation
from the “Schiaparelli
and Prada: Impossible
Conversations” exhibition,
which was organized
by The Costume
Institute of The Metropolitan
Museum of
Art, in New York, USA.
FACTS
AND
FIGURES
Prada posted revenue
of EUR 3.55 bn in 2015
(including wholesale,
retail and royalties)
Breakdown shows retail
sales in 2015, by region
in EUR million
Source: pradagroup.com
403.7
Japan
410.8
Americas
103.5
Middle East
1,080.0
Far East
1,060.0
Europe
Breakdown shows retail
sales in 2015 by product
in EUR million
Source: pradagroup.com
537.5
Footwear
541.6
Ready-to-
Wear
1,920.0
Leather
Goods