Prada
Prada S.p.A. (/ˈprɑːdə/ PRAH-də, Italian: [ˈpraːda]) is an Italian luxury fashion house that was based in Milan, Italy. It specializes in leather handbags, travel trunks and accessories, beauty cases, shoes, ready-to-wear, perfumes, jewelries, cell phones and other accessories.
Prada was founded in 1913 by Mario Prada and his brother Martino as a leather goods shop named Fratelli Prada, where they opened the first store in the prestigious Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan.[1] Mario's granddaughter, Miuccia Prada, joined the family business in 1970. She met Patrizio Bertelli in 1977, an Italian entrepreneur who had begun his own leather goods business at the age of 24, and he joined the company as Miuccia's partner and Prada's business manager soon after. Miuccia inherited the company in 1978 by which time sales were up to U.S. $450,000 and married Bertelli in the same year.
Miuccia now is the head designer and co-CEO of Prada, along with her husband as the CEO. By 2019, Prada operated 429 stores for 13,779 employees and generated US$3,225 million in revenue and US$3,18 million in profits.[2]
Controversy
On December 14, 2018, Prada was forced to pull a $550 keychain from its Pradamalia collection from its stores following complaints that was written on Facebook by Chinyere Ezie, a civil rights attorney and activist.[3] Ezie said that the design of Otto Toto, one of the Pradamalia series’ collectible keychains, is the monkey-inspired design that incited the criticism. Sporting a dark wooden body and oversized red lips, the character, particularly the ones in storefront displays at the brand’s store in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood featured "blackface imagery" and were reminiscent of Little Sambo, a character in a children’s book with illustrations that are considered overtly racist.[4]
Prada apologized publicly and stated in a tweet, "Prada Group never had the intention of offending anyone and we abhor all forms of racism and racist imagery. In this interest we will withdraw the characters in question from display and circulation." In response to the outrage, Prada assembled a diversity and inclusion advisory council co-chaired by Ava DuVernay and Theaster Gates.[5]
References
- ↑ https://www.pradagroup.com/en/group/history.html
- ↑ https://www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReports/PDF/OTC_PRDSY_2019.pdf
- ↑ https://time.com/5480583/prada-blackface/
- ↑ https://hypebeast.com/2018/12/prada-monkey-otto-toto-pradamalia-racist-blackface-recall
- ↑ https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/fashion/fashion-news/a26337515/prada-launches-diversity-council-led-by-ava-duvernay/

