Prada is a luxury Italian fashion house specializing in men’s and women’s clothing, footwear, accessories, and perfumes. The brand was founded in 1913 by Mario Prada, and today it produces one of the most desirable fashion items in the world.
Meaning and history
In 1914, Mario Prada and his brother founded a company in Milan to produce travel bags and accessories. The brand is used as exclusive as possible. Materials for their products: walrus and python leather, tortoiseshell, rare woods and semi-precious stones, and soft suede. Prada brothers made a bet on VIP clients and opened a small store in the center of Milan in the Victor Emmanuel II shopping gallery.
In 1919, the Prada brothers began supplying bags for Italian monarchs. Thanks to this, the royal court allowed them to add elements of the heraldry of the House of Savoy to the logo: a rope with knots and a coat of arms. No other company has ever been so honored.
Since its foundation and up to the end of the 1950s, the Prada family business developed exclusively in the trade of bags and small travel attributes of the premium class.
In 1979 the granddaughter of the brand’s founder, Miuccia Prada became responsible for the development of the company. First of all, she begins to actively negotiate with the leading designers and fashion designers of the time, wanting to poach them to the corporate headquarters of Prada. Then she makes a fateful decision for the brand to increase the offered assortment – the release of an exclusive line of women’s clothing.
The efforts of the granddaughter of the founder of the fashion house are crowned with success, and in 1989 the first collection of women’s clothing in the history of Prada was introduced.
Prada clothes instantly took a very special place in the international market arena. It was expensive, high quality, presentable, simple, yet luxurious.
In the mid-1990s, the fashion house launched a men’s line of Prada clothing, shoes, and accessories. And in 1997, the Prada Sport line was launched, offering outfits in sport-casual style.
What is Prada?
Prada is a world-renowned fashion house, created in Italy in the 1910s. Currently, it specializes in the production of women’s and men’s luxury segment clothing, shoes, eyewear, perfumes, and cosmetics, as well as accessories. The headquarters, the company’s head office, is located in Milan
In terms of visual identity, the Prada fashion house has been very consistent. The first version of the iconic logo featured elegant heraldic symbols, taken from the House of Savoy crest, — the oval frame with a knotted rope and a coat of arms. Although, over the years, the company has home more minimalistic, and today the logo consists of just a custom bold wordmark.
1919 — Today
Inside a waste oval frame with the House Of Savoy symbols, there was an extra-bold uppercase “Prada” inscription set in a custom serif font with a very interesting design of the letter “R”. The wordmark was underlined by a modest sans-serif “Milano” tagline, which today can also be added to the primary logo, depending on the collection of the brand.
The first versions of the logo also featured a laconic arched ribbon with the date of the company’s foundation, but the latest versions of the Prada logo do not use the ribbons anymore.
Font and color
All of the Prada logo versions have always been set in a plain black color and used the corporate Prada typeface, designed for the brand at the beginning of the 20th century. The closest fonts to the one, used in the Prada insignia, are, probably, Qeskile Voyage Semi Light, or Fogie Bold, but with the shape of the letter “R” completely modified.
