Italian fashion magazine

In a rare interview, Italian designer Miuccia Prada--a hit with clients like Leonardo DiCaprio and Winona Ryder--talks about her two new L.A. shops, her successes and her new direction

It's a hot, muggy morning in Milan, a city where only a lucky few have air, conditioning, and just looking at Miuccia Prada nudges the mercury up a few degrees. The brainy, iconoclastic Italian designer, famous for strolling around Milan bare-legged in the dead of winter, is now dressed in a Miu Miu wool top and long skirt over her signature black Wicked Witch of the West shoes. "It's summer," she says, breaking into a grin. "What did you expect?" The petite, brown-eyed fashion guru, known for her superhip collections, is not kidding when she says modern dressing is all about turning fashion on its head. "I wear evening clothes all day long, so my first instinct in the evening is to reach for a sweater and trousers," she says. "Today, dressing is much more interesting because there are no more rules."

It is precisely this kind of reaction against convention, this rebellion against dress codes, that has given her label cult status among fashionistas in both Europe and America--including Los Angeles, where the Prada boutique on Brighton Wily in Beverly Hills is a beacon for style groupies. Now Miuccia is expanding her L.A. presence with two new shops: Prada Uomo (which, at press time, was set to open in late July on Rodeo Drive) is the first Prada men's shop in the United States, and Miu Miu, featuring Prada's second, less pricey women's line, is set to open in October on trendy Melrose. It will be the second U.S. Miu Miu store. (The first is in SoHo in New York.) Though Italy may be worlds away from California, Prada insists that L.A. isn't much different from Milan, New York or Tokyo when it comes to fashion.

"Fashion is much more international now because communication is so much faster," she says, sitting in her airy Milan showroom-cum-art gallery surrounded by works that reveal her eclectic taste--a sculpture by Michael Heizer (part of a series titled "Russian Constructivist Painting #1") and a piece by Andrea Zittel (called A-Z Escape Vehicles) that looks like a mini pop-up camper. "Also, Prada clients are more or less similar--they're informed, curious people," she continues. "We've found that what sells in Milano sells more or less everywhere."

And selling it is. The firm's worldwide sales figures for 1997 were $696 million, up 66 percent from 1996, and 1998 sales are expected to hit $833 million.

"The thing that amazes me about Prada and Miu Miu," says Elizabeth Stewart, an L.A.-based fashion stylist for the New York Times, "is that they appeal to fashion insiders and outsiders. Prada was once thought of as this intellectual only fashion people really got. But are incredible. Maybe the line is thinner between fashion 'insiders' the rest of the world."

In 1913, when Miuccia's grandfather Prada, the company was a leather-goods firm specializing in quality handbags. In 1978, Miuccia, a rebellious 27-year-old with bohemian-chic tastes, took over the sleepy firm hoping to update it. In 1985, she added shoes, in 1988 launched the company's first ready-to-wear collection. By 1992, when Miu was born, Prada was starting to become a fashion status symbol, and by 1994, the year Miuccia introduced a men's line (the same she won the Inter. national Award from the prestigious Council of Fashion Designers of America), the label was a bona fide hit, a fashion-forward powerhouse with hipsters from Milan to Malibu virtually worshiping at the Prada altar.

Though her first clothing collection (fall/winter 1988-89) got mixed reviews--some fashion editors found it too edgy and a bit unwearable--models, who worked Prada shows in exchange for the clothes, loved its spare modernity and unique fabrics. With fins like Linda Evangelista and Naomi Campbell, the collection caught on among the fashion cognoscenti, and now, like Gucci, Helmut Lang and Jil Sander, Prada has become so synonymous with cutting-edge fashion that ifs almost a cliche. But cliche or not, ifs still cool, and in L.A., where cool is practically a religion, the label is as sought after as a Ben Affleck/Matt Damon screenplay.

Legions of in-the-know L.A. style-setters sport the label's signature black nylon totes, sleek leather handbags and pointy leather shoes. Its black-and-silver-triangle trademark is one of the most coveted (and copied) in the business. And some credit Uma Thurman's custom lavender Prada ensemble at the 1995 Oscars (Women's Wear Daily called it VA VA VAV UMA on its cover) with creating a Hollywood fervor for the Italian collection. In fact, that's where Sigourney Weaver, who wore Prada to this year's Golden Globes and Oscars, first discovered the line's glamour possibilities. "I didn't know Prada made evening dresses," Weaver said to Thurman that night. "They don't," answered Thurman. "They just made this one." Weaver soon became a devotee. "I've worn a lot of Prada this year," the actress admits. "She is definitely one of my favorite designers."

Prada returns the compliment. Weaver, she says, is "open and fearless about fashion. She enjoys wearing clothing that's interesting from a design point of view, and she appreciates us."

Weaver is not the only one. The year after Thurman's splash, Nicole Kidman (no doubt hoping to make as big an impression) wore her own custom Prada--a purple empire-waisted gown. But "no one," reported WWD, "thought it looked quite as good as Uma's last year." Meanwhile, Leonardo DiCaprio wore Prada to the premieres of Romeo & Juliet, Titanic and The Man in the Iron Mask. Brad Pitt donned it for the premieres of The Devil's Own, Seven and Seven Tears in Tibet and the 1996 and 1998 Oscars. Madonna flaunted it at the 1996 VH1 Fashion Awards and on her Ray of Light European press tour.

Prada says she's not interested, however, in custom-dressing just any celebrity because they happen to be famous. "I need to establish a kind of relationship with the person, so the clothes express their personality but still bear my mark," she explains. "I really hate to see stars walking around with clothes that have nothing to do with their personalities."

The new L.A. store openings will no doubt add to Prada's Hollywood heat. And designers know that heat in Hollywood means heat worldwide. While Miuccia confesses that dressing stars "is important for the business" (Willem Dafoe, John Malkovich and Tim Roth have appeared in her menswear ads, while Drew Barrymore and Chloe Sevigny have posed for Miu Miu), she says her thrills come from seeing celebrities wear Prada and Miu Miu basics, like cashmeres and clamdiggers, in "real life." Of course, it doesn't hurt that VIP fans get a cool 30 percent discount.

Image, however, is only one reason that opening more L.A. stores is important for the fashion firm. The other is more mundane: sales. Prada menswear accounts for 15 percent of the firm's total volume and is expected to grow 10 percent this year. Miu Miu generates 7 percent of total sales and is projected to grow 22 percent this year. And though the Prada women's store in Beverly Hills (Prada's only franchised store in the country) currently generates only 8 percent of the company's $111.4 million in U.S. sales, this years figures are expected to rise 22 percent--compared with a projected 12 percent rise in Prada's U.S. sales overall.

Both new L.A. stores, like all Prada shops, were designed by Italian architect Roberto Baciocchi, but while the men's features Prada's trademark cool green walls and stainless-steel fixtures, Miu Miu will be awash in warm shades of red. Its Melrose location is "young, trendy and right," Prada says--words that she could use to describe the collection itself (which, at $180 for a skirt and up to $1,400 for an overcoat, costs about half as much as Prada). When Miu Miu debuted, Miuccia said it was "about immediate needs--simple, easy basics," while Prada was "more the concept of luxury." Today, she says, "If I take too much time with Miu Miu, it comes out too sophisticated and wrong." Therefore, she designs it "quickly, furiously and straight from the gut."

Following her instincts is something the designer says she has always relied on. The business side of the company seems to have the same philosophy. In a gutsy move this past June that shocked the fashion and financial worlds, Prada snatched up a 9.5 percent stake in rival Gucci, becoming the public Company's largest shareholder. Prada's husband, Patrizio Bertelli, says he would like to team up with Gucci on a business strategy. But Gucci's CEO, Domenico De Sole, has said the two companies are "not in talks," and (surprise) he doesn't think a merger would be a "good idea."