Prada was founded in Milan in 1913 by Mario Prada, Miuccia Prada’s grandfather.
Located inside one of Milan’s most celebrated icons, the prestigious glass-covered Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II arcade, Prada was an exclusive shop selling luxury travel articles and accessories made with sophisticated techniques and the finest materials.
It wasn’t long before the shop in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II became a favourite port of call for the aristocracy and the more refined and elegant members of Europe’s upper classes. In 1919 Prada was appointed Official Supplier to the Italian Royal Household; as such, it incorporated the House of Savoy’s coat of arms and knotted rope design into its logo.
The original Prada shop in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II has kept its ancient flavour. Displayed on the mahogany shelving units – the very ones that Mario Prada specially commissioned a British architect to design and produce – are exquisitely hand-made bags, trunks, leather accessories and beauty cases of the finest quality as well as all the other leather goods, footwear and clothes from the latest collections.
Alongside these, a selection of historic Prada products confirm a level of quality as outstanding today as it was a century ago.