Word: prada
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When she took over the family business 20 years ago, Miuccia Prada came with an unusual pedigree. The dark-eyed Milanese was not only the scion to an 85-year-old family leather-goods business but also an active communist who dabbled in mime. An odd combination, perhaps, but evidently terrific preparation for the world of fashion, where Prada's mime-quiet minimalism has made her fashion house into the decade's most powerful design force...
Last week her firm announced its intention to become a powerful business force as well. Under the careful eyes of Prada's husband Patrizio Bertelli, its managing director, the firm grabbed 5% of rival fashion house Gucci for a little more than $120 million. The acquisition, akin to Hyundai's biting off a tasty chunk of Honda, had many manicured hands scratching coiffed heads--including some at Gucci's Florentine headquarters, which released a terse statement: "No agreement has been entered into with the Prada group, and no discussions are contemplated. Gucci did not solicit this investment...
...idea of a Prada takeover of Gucci would have seemed risible 20 years ago, when Gucci was among the world's great brands and Prada was a leather-goods firm with a boutique in one of Milan's historic shopping arcades. But since Prada and Bertelli united--in marriage and business--in 1987, they have turned a respectable business into fashion's most watched house. They added footwear, women's ready-to-wear, a younger collection called Miu Miu, menswear, underwear and sportswear. Prada's design sense has made her the most influential designer of the decade, with a ripple...
...look sells. The single boutique in Milan has grown into a Prada empire of 120 shops around the world. Last year the firm opened 27 flagship stores and 13 in-store boutiques. This year it is planning 15 Prada stores (in such places as Chicago and Taipei) and five Miu Miu shops. According to Bertelli, Prada had a pretax profit of $130.1 million on revenues of $674 million last year. This year he expects $150 million on sales of $824 million--tidy numbers for a family firm...
...standing in front of her famous Art Deco wall of mirrors. Fashion tends to involve a good dose of smoke and mirrors, so it should come as no surprise that Gabrielle Chanel's version of her life involved a multitude of lies, inventions, cover-ups and revisions. But as Prada said to me: "She was really a genius. It's hard to pin down exactly why, but it has something to do with her wanting to be different and wanting to be independent...