The Design Museum’s Deyan Sudjic was granted access to the legendary Italian house’s archives and headquarters in Milan for upcoming exhibition Prada. Front and Back
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.