Miuccia Prada 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 the 75th most
History of Italian fashion with Versace, Armani, and Dolce & Gabbana opening up their first boutiques there. Until the 1970s, Italian fashion primarily served the wealthy, similar to "haute couture" in France. In the 1970s and 1980s, Italian fashion started to concentrate on ready-to-wear clothes, such as jeans, sweaters, and miniskirts. Milan had more affordable styles for shoppers, and Florence was no longer considered the fashion capital of Italy. New clothing labels, such as Miu Miu and Geox, started to appear worldwide in the 1990s. Many celebrities, such as Beyoncé, Axl Rose, Elton John, Naomi Campbell, Elizabeth Hurley, Lady Gaga, Victoria Beckham, Madonna, Britney