London’s Design Museum has announced that its September 2020 exhibition will focus on Prada, the institution having been granted access to the Italian fashion house’s Milanese archives and headquarters – marking the first time a major museum has dedicated an exhibition to Prada. Titled Prada. Front and Back, the exhibition promises a look at both the collections, clothing and accessories produced by the house, as well as the company’s ever-growing infrastructure, in an unprecedented behind-the-scenes exploration of Prada.
Deyan Sudjic has curated the exhibition (it marks Sudjic’s final show as co-director of the Design Museum, a role he is stepping down from in January 2020). “For me, it’s a particularly personal challenge to work on the Prada exhibition – there is so much to explore about a company that never wants to do the obvious thing, and that is such a genuine cultural force,” he says.
At the exhibition’s core, of course, will be Miuccia Prada, who joined her family’s business in the 1970s and first introduced ready-to-wear in 1988. Prada. Front and Back will trace the extraordinary trajectory that Mrs Prada has engineered for the house: taking it from luggage and leather goods to one of the world’s most recognised and revolutionary luxury fashion houses, alongside her husband and co-CEO Patrizio Bertelli. “She has made Prada the essence of modernity,” says the Design Museum.
