Miuccia Prada, Prada Co-Creative Director Who Built Miu Miu and Shaped the Group

Miuccia Prada is co-creative director of the Prada brand, creative director of Miu Miu and an executive director of Prada Group, the Milan luxury company that also owns Versace, Church’s and Car Shoe. She has shaped the Prada label since the late 1970s and has shared its creative direction with Raf Simons since April 2020.

Her work matters to the group’s results today. Miu Miu, the label she created in 1993 and still designs, grew its retail sales by 93 percent in 2024 and by a further 35 percent in 2025, while the group reported net revenues of 5.718 billion euros for 2025.

Education

Miuccia Prada earned a degree from the University of Milan before she began designing for the Prada business, according to her official biography published by Prada Group.

Career

Prada opened its first store in 1913 in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan. Miuccia Prada started designing for the business after her studies, and the group’s official history dates the start of a new business model to 1977.

That year, according to Prada Group, her creative work was joined with the entrepreneurial drive of a partner who owned two leather goods companies. The aim was the international development of the brand, and the partnership set the direction the company still follows.

In 1993 three steps came together. Prada launched its first collection for men, Miuccia Prada created Miu Miu as a separate label, and Fondazione Prada was set up to explore the role of cultural engagement in the present day.

The group then widened its footprint. It added the Linea Rossa sportswear line in 1997, bought the English shoemaker Church’s in 1999 and brought the Italian driving loafer brand Car Shoe into the group two years later.

In 2001 Prada opened its first “Epicenter” store in New York, designed by the architect Rem Koolhaas as a space for both shopping and cultural events. Further Epicenters followed in Tokyo in 2003, designed by Herzog and de Meuron, and in Los Angeles in 2004.

In 2003 Miuccia Prada became Chairwoman of the Board of Prada S.p.A., a post she held until 2014. The same year the group signed licensing deals with Luxottica for eyewear and with Puig for fragrances.

In 2011 Prada S.p.A. became the first Italian company to list its shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Miuccia Prada served as Co-Chief Executive Officer of the company until 26 January 2023. Since then the group has been run by Chief Executive Officer Andrea Guerra.

On 23 February 2020 the company announced that Raf Simons would join the Prada brand as co-creative director from 2 April 2020, working with her “with equal responsibilities for creative input and decision-making”. Their first joint collection was the Spring/Summer 2021 womenswear show in Milan in September 2020.

She was appointed again as an Executive Director of Prada S.p.A. on 24 April 2024. In December 2025 the group completed its purchase of Versace from Capri Holdings, a deal agreed in April 2025 on an enterprise value of 1.25 billion euros.

Current Roles

• Co-Creative Director of Prada, alongside Raf Simons (since April 2020)
• Creative Director of Miu Miu
• Executive Director, Prada S.p.A. (since 24 April 2024)
• Director of Prada Holding S.p.A., a main shareholder of the group

Key Achievements

Building Miu Miu into a growth engine

Miu Miu was created in 1993, and Prada Group describes it as a laboratory for new expressions of style. In recent years it has become one of the fastest growing labels in the group.

• Miu Miu retail sales growth: 93 percent, a record year (2024)
• Miu Miu retail sales growth: 35 percent (2025)
• Fourth quarter growth: 20 percent in 2025, after 84 percent in the same quarter of 2024

Shared creative leadership with Raf Simons

The 2020 decision to share the Prada brand’s creative direction was announced as a partnership of equals. The first collection designed by the pair was shown in Milan in September 2020, and the arrangement covers all creative parts of the Prada label, while Miu Miu remains her own responsibility.

Linking fashion with art and architecture

Fondazione Prada, set up in 1993, gave the group a cultural institution of its own. The New York Epicenter of 2001 brought in Rem Koolhaas, and the British Fashion Council later cited her capacity for “blending multiple creative disciplines including fashion, art, architecture and film” when it honoured her in 2018.

Five years of growth for the group

The company she has led as designer and director reported its fifth consecutive year of growth in 2025. A year earlier, in 2024, net revenues had risen 17 percent at constant exchange rates to 5.4 billion euros. In 2025 retail sales rose 9 percent at constant exchange rates to 5.102 billion euros, and the group counted 20 consecutive quarters of growth, in a market where larger groups such as LVMH, built by Bernard Arnault, also compete.

The Company in Numbers

• Net revenues: 5.718 billion euros (2025)
• Retail sales: 5.102 billion euros (2025)
• Group net income: 852 million euros (2025)
• Stores: 843, including Versace (31 December 2025)
• Employees: 17,901, including Versace (31 December 2025)
• Owned factories: 25 (2025)
• Countries where the group sells its collections: more than 70 (2025)

Awards and Honours

• Honorary Doctorate, Royal College of Art, London (2000)
• Officier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, French Ministry of Culture (2006)
• International Designer of the Year, British Fashion Awards (2013)
• Knight of the Grand Cross, Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (2015)
• Outstanding Achievement Award, The Fashion Awards, British Fashion Council, London (2018)

In Their Own Words

Accepting the Outstanding Achievement Award at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 10 December 2018, Miuccia Prada said: “I am so happy to be here because more and more I feel part of this community.”

In the same speech she thanked her colleagues “for their passion, intelligence and talent”, according to the statement issued by Prada Group the next day.

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