"UGLY CHIC" - The Prada Story - Guides to Designer Fashion

[Music] oh [Music] dancing in front of me [Music] she makes me feel alive [Music] fashion industry broadcast and style planet tv are proud to bring you their new netflix original series the girl's guides to the world of designer fashion this new six-part series explores the seductive world of design or fashion series one the history of lingerie series two the legend of the designer bag series 3 the mystery of the high heel series 4 american fashion series 5 italian fashion and series 6 paris fashion [Music] at the beginning of my job i never wanted anybody to know what i was thinking yes more and more i want to to be more myself more out and say what i think but that honesty comes at a cost machia prada is regarded as one of the most influential and enigmatic fashion designers of modern times for nearly four decades she has displayed her polishant for setting trends and bucking the ideas of her fellow designers the now 71 year old together with the ceo partner patricio botelli have transformed what was essentially a small family business into one of the world's most impressive multi-billion dollar fashion houses i never understood why being big you should be different maybe sounds strange i don't understand why being a big company i have to think in a different way i really don't understand why [Music] son of a that wasn't my fault the steering wheel screwed on backwards otherwise i'd never been bringing up the rear in the first place i've been slipping and sliding for the last 150 miles plus there's a slow leak in the rear left tire ah scrooge come on it's totaled fellas completely finito totally calamity disaster catastrophica stick it back in the gutter where it belongs machia prada is a true iconoclast and one who has never ducked a challenge under her alter-like direction prada has blended the old and the new the ugly and the sublime the vulgar and the simple to show off a smorgasbord of original and often unexpected ideas no two collections have ever looked vaguely the same and it's obvious to any fashionista watching that each well thought out garment detail has come from one singular great mind and the irony of it all is that the prada renaissance under muchia started in 1985 with a choice of an unassuming fabric for her bags machia could have followed the likes of louis vuitton by brandishing a new leather design with multiple gaudy logos but instead prada went in the opposite direction choosing a fabric and a feel that screamed function rather than fashion pocone was a military-grade nylon that was used by prada's grandfather to cover trunks but it was the key to machia's first breakout success starting with a series of waterproof backpacks prada eventually moved on to totes handbags and more all including a small triangle black logo bearing the prada within name the peconi bags and backpacks became a global phenomenon collected worn and lusted over by the fashion cognizante the world over the velar bags were born out of prada's disdain for the bags of their luxury competitors which she deemed too formal and traditional what resulted was a complete transformation of what it meant to produce a luxury good the nylon bags became a symbol of modernity it allowed luxury to be subversive and go beyond the superficial [Music] [Applause] the prada brand which belongs to one of the smaller conglomerates in the fashion industry the prada group first began in 1913 when brothers mario and martino began a family liver goods business then it was known as fratelli prada the brothers prada the business was known for their bags trunks and steamers years later prada became the official supplier of the italian royal house allowing the business to display the house of savoy coat of arms in their seal it quickly became a symbol of wealth and aristocracy used only by the upper echelons of society born in 1949 muchia prada grew up conservatively in milan foreshadowing her impact on the family's eponymous bran machia prata's formative years are evidence that she was cut from a different kind of cloth she received her doctorate in political science from the university of milan inspired by her travels to france england and ireland during her childhood and adolescence she was famously a member of the italian communist party riding on the rebellious sentiments of the italian youth movement in the 1960s who felt disdain at the state of a newly modernized capitalist italy during a time at university machia prada campaigned for women's rights and was vocal about reproductive rights and accessible child care prada often talks about the conflict of being a radical feminist and someone involved in the fashion at the same time i was grown up in the 60s and when the feminism and everybody connected to fashion and women business was for me the worst possible idea because i did i wanted to do anything possible except fashion but at the end i think i liked fashion and i like object and and between different things that i will start doing at the end i did it and only few years ago i realized that i i completely accepted that i wanted to do this work this dichotomy would one day become integral to her very identity she says you know i had to have a lot of courage to go into fashion because in theory it was the least feminist work possible of course i had much more high desire political big dream of working on something more useful [Music] so political or anything else so this efficient business was really the worst for me at the moment her willingness to go against the grain and her understanding of women would come to define her aesthetic ultimately she transformed prada into a brand characterized by disruptive innovation while simultaneously always having the female figure at the forefront of the design each of your collections is some kind of throwing down the gauntlet to established ways of thinking you know sometimes even you'll challenge the idea of what it means to be avant-garde and you'll put out a really conservative collection of course it's conservative in quotes you know where you're really working with those things and i remember that's what first made me notice your work in 1978 she took over the company after two decades of her maternal mother at the head of the operations her initial attempts consisted of a luggage line and various footwear designs which saw little success behind the scenes there was somebody else destined to drive the success of the future brand he was patrizio batelli fashion entrepreneur and once a rival of the prada family is a maker of leather goods he wed machia prada in 1978. bertelli would come to be the mastermind behind the brand's business strategies while machia focused on the creative side i think that in general the attitude of me and my husband and the company is to do something possibly beautiful and new and interesting and clever if we do it or not i don't know but that is our always our point of view it was bertelli that inspired prada to move beyond accessories and begin designing clothing and prada released a ready-to-wear women's collection in fall 1988. the debut collection by machia prada is a marker of the brand today consisting of silhouettes inspired by men's tailoring oversized and boxy yet designed with women in mind the collection was an ode to machia's background in politics and a desire for the subversive even claiming that her first collection was uniforms for the slightly disenfranchised the pieces were designed as workwear ranging from brown a colour rarely seen on the runways to bolder reds and pinks in the fashion community the collection was not met with unanimous acclaim it was deemed an aberration by the traditionally luxury crowd but also too banal for the avant-gardis the collection resonated with the everyday woman and it differentiated themselves from other luxury houses with their effortless and understated pieces fabio zambernardi design director prada once said at the start there was versace there was armani and everything was much more loud than what mochir was doing it was the 90s and everyone had their eyes on prada an era where machia prata was pioneering what became to be known as ugly chic kind of famous for introducing ugly ugliness in fashion but it's it's not that they introduce ugliness in fashion they want to introduce normal life and pure life and what is around it was in stark contrast to the simple sexy looks that dominated the runways at the time like the work of tom ford for gucci in the 1990s which were characterized by bias cuts and revealing silhouettes the term ugly chic was given to prada by fashion critics and is perhaps best embodied in her spring summer 1996 collection titled banal eccentricity models wore famously librarian-esque skirts that look stiff in that little movement and colors like mustard chartreuse and lilac the patterns were reminiscent of wallpaper and curtains and were accompanied by clunky slides and low heel sandals this was the era of the supermodel and 90s icons like kate moss cursed hume and carolyn murphy wearing seemingly ugly clothes helped to defy the standards set by other luxury houses at the time the collection shocked the fashion world but also transformed it fashion experts say it created a sartorial shift that had people seeking out the past and the vintage and willing to depart from the ideas of the traditionally accepted beautiful i want to to really uh try to understand what is beauty and and the necessity and the obligation of being sexy or being beautiful and and i have nothing against being beautiful and sexy but i like when it's a choice in recent years ugly chic has manifested itself in different ways and the term has become synonymous with the brand's tendency to be subversive what mutua has always done is really sort of take the absolute classic item of clothing in your wardrobe and reinvent it in the most modern directional futuristic functional way i loved the way she always takes risks on the runway i think virtually every season she comes up with something very unexpected and jarring the collection of spring summer 2014 was an outward display of michia prada's feminist beliefs celebrating the strength of women the collection was a mixing and a matching of fabrics like fur jewels and midway as well as having a diverse color palette of khaki blue bright red yellow and green [Music] the sportswear inspired collection was heavy and bold especially for the summer but perhaps the most important aspect was the overlay of bralettes onto the pieces in doing so she reframed the intimate as something to be seen rather than hidden and commenting on the autonomy of women the juxtaposition of utilitarian clothing and quintessentially feminine pieces is something machia prada does offer as seen again in autumn winter 2016 where ugly chic is seen in the printed argyle tights and brocade patterning prada keeps her touch of femininity by cinching in the waist of an oversized boxy coat with a bustier a silhouette that is quintessentially prouder however prada goes beyond simple association with ugly chic amiciya prada is renowned for reflexivity and pragmatism you don't have a lot to experiment because at the end you have to do clothes that that cells first of all uh that that they are useful that people can wear as eccentric as it could be but wearable because that is much more important for me than just artistic creation that i'm not interested [Music] but of course i'm i struggle the whole time to do to try to do something new and to do some movement and to express more contradiction um in that little space that i had the chia prada reminds the fashion world that prada can still do sexy with the 2002 fall collection which featured tight skirts fur bombers and see-through vinyl jackets it featured the classic influence of workwear and men's inspired coats but the collection was more notably sophisticated and was born out of minchia's desire to prove everyone's misconception about prada wrong she would continue to reference traditional femininity in later collections like autumn 2008 with classy ladylike silhouettes which were combined with it's very much about sometimes what i like but sometimes also analyzing what's trending why people like something and try to find an ironic way to look at it like from outside for instance when i did the lace i asked why women always like lace and so try to analyze the reason this is something that i like at the moment the chia prada also defined the norms with a kitchiness and an ability to put colours prints and materials together it was this that would produce some of the most iconic styles that prada is known for like the flame heels featured in the spring summer 2012 collection the hot rod heels quickly became a fan favorite and were even re-released years later another example of machia's love for almost the tacky is seen in the famous prada banana print which was the star of the show of the spring summer 2011 collection and quickly became one of the hottest trends of the season even when i'm uncertain i push even more because the only way to make something reasonable out of something that is completely maybe wrong is really to push so so much that eventually uh it's an excess and eventually it's say say the truth of what i'm thinking so when i did the the banana collection with the the third with the stripe and those monkeys and all this crazy baroque and i was sure it was a total disaster but it turned out that people are much more ready to accept craziness than people think machia prata knows how to dress a woman but the prada menswear line receives the same accolades the women's wear equivalent it now accounts for 30 of the company's sales prada cleverly employs the same principles clean cut tailoring and mixing and matching in prints textiles and colours but does so in a way that makes the exaggerated more accessible for the everyday man the menswear fall 2016 collection was critically acclaimed celebrated for the layers of tailoring and the nautical inspired looks but machia prada also tries to push the boundaries of the menswear line the menswear spring summer 2019 collection featured the kitschy and almost ugly signature prada touch with vivid clashing patterns and short shorts today prada has a mastin empire worth over 11 billion dollars u.s they have cemented their place in the fashion world and they've even made their forays into the sportswear area with prada sport and also with prada linear rossa linear roster is a sub-brand that is loved among streetwear fans today and even into the broader world of art and culture with fondazione prada an institution dedicated to showcasing artists in milan prada has put a number of measures in place to ensure its longevity namely in the commitments to sustainability lorenzo batali the son of patricio and machia prada is the next to join the family dynasty and he has been the head of marketing and communications since september 2017. it is bertelli who is ensuring that prada is ready for the new generation like changing prada's new online retail strategy to cater for a modern audience he is also pioneering one of the brand's most significant sustainability movements the re nylon range the prada re-nylon project is crossing five continents to connect with upcycling initiatives that are turning harmful waste into pristine new products this is where the regeneration process takes place where the nylon waste is transformed into monomers so how do you ensure that the v-nylon you're making is as pure as say virgin nylon it is not a normal mechanical recycling but it's a chemical process so it's returning to the original building blocks and we are able to reproduce really pristine nylon exactly like the one that you may have from oil seeing it was an island that was the catalyst for prada's upward trajectory the fashion house is cleverly transforming themselves without losing their very essence with bertelli and proud of the helm since the house's debut and ready to wear one of the most asked questions in the fashion industry is who will be the successor to the husband and wife duo patrizio batali hinted that his son could eventually become the head of prada if lorenzo so wished however the biggest hint of succession came in february of 2020 when it was announced that raf simons would be the co-creative director of prada alongside the cheer product actually it came out kind of spontaneously in different interviews in the past i thought we we said oh why not why not working together one day and all in a sudden when they happen i think we've always been very interested in each other's work and obviously we met quite a long time ago already because muja and mr bartelli offered me the position at jill sumner many years ago ralph simons has become a name quickly associated with today's men's streetwear market and could potentially bring new audiences for the fashion house it is a collaboration which they both value simplicity originality and modernity the creative partnership is perhaps another answer to the question of succession despite prada vehemently denying that michia prada is looking to step down however machia prada is 71 years old and machia and patricio are undoubtedly looking for the next generation of talent to air their prada throne the pure definition of new for me means like it's really something we've never seen before i think it's it is it's a new person coming in it's a young new generation coming in they should bring new and with a legacy like prada's it's difficult to envisage someone else with credit control that has consistently transformed the fashion industry for the last four decades piece of clothing serves the the role of making you live better so it's for you and it's for your life so it's not an abstract an abstract job the result of my job is that people with my claws probably feel feel a bit better they can live a bit better so has to be useful and help define your personality even if you want to change when you want to be somebody when they want to be somebody else depends the occasion so really think about that is this an instrument for your life [Music] you

Channel: Fashion Industry Broadcast

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Keywords: PRADA, UGLY CHIC, MUCCIA PRADA, PRADA GROUP, ITALIAN FASHION, ITALIAN DESIGNER, FASHION

Id: sspYWShggjQ

Length: 22min 49sec (1369 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 04 2020