Miuccia Prada and Francesco Vezzoli. Miuccia Prada Miuccia Bianchi Prada (; born Maria Bianchi ; 10 May 1949) is an Italian billionaire fashion designer and businesswoman. She is the head designer of Prada and the founder of its subsidiary Miu Miu. The youngest granddaughter of Mario Prada, she took over the family-owned luxury goods manufacturer in 1978. Since then, the company has acquired Jil Sander, Helmut Lang and shoemaker Church & Co. In 2002, Prada opened her own contemporary art gallery. In March 2013, she was one of the fifty best-dressed over 50 by the "Guardian." In 2014 she was listed as
Helmut Lang (fashion brand) fragrances (1999) were launched, but otherwise the brand was kept unified to solidify its identity and strength. The runway show venues for the Helmut Lang label were switched from Paris (until 1998) to New York by Mr. Lang and back again to Paris by Prada (from 2002 to 2005). The collections/presentations used to be called "" ("working sessions") by Mr. Lang. In 1999, Milan-based fashion house Prada acquired 51% of the Helmut Lang company in the course of a multi-brand strategy, which also included the acquisition of German fashion label Jil Sander. After alleged disputes with Prada Group's CEO Patrizio