Il Ritorno di Prada
Until recent years, Prada was the "sorella dimenticata" of Italian luxury brands. It wasn't like its designs or products were controversial, or even bad. É stata simpleciamente noiosa e poco stimolante, che è l'opposto del solito dei designer italiani stili vibranti, caotici e rivoluzionari.
As you can see from these bags from the Spring/Summer 2015 Collection, Prada lacked originality, and a brand identity. The bags don't have awful designs, but none of them look like they're worth the hundreds or even thousands of dollars Prada was attempting to sell them for.
Vorresti comprare una di queste borse?
SÌ
No
Photo courtesy of Spotted Fashion https://www.spottedfashion.com/prada-spring-summer-2015-bag-collection-featuring-large-stitching/
So how did Prada regain its popularity? To answer that we must take a look at its "anni d'oro", more specifically, the year 2005. In 2005, Prada launched its Nylon Bag Line. Queste borse erano molto popolare tra adolescenti ragazze e giovane donne perche erano economico (per una borse di lussuosa), sostenibile, e è venuto in molti diversi colori. The Nylon Bags became an iconic stable of early 2000's culture
Photo Credit: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/305822630951732086/
While early 2000's fashion was once an unspeakable, cringeworthy era in fashion history, its popularity reemerged at the turn of the decade in 2020, and thus after years of remaining what some may consider "dormant", Prada seized its opportunity and re-launched the once discontinued Nylon Bag, this time in even more colors, shapes, and styles.
From this re-brand Prada has created an identity for itself which is both nostalgic yet timeless. While it took a different direction than a lot of other famous Italian designers, I believe all these Italian brands strive to create pieces that reflect on past Italian culture while also remaining tasteful and timeless to the international fashion community.
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