Raf Simons joins Miuccia Prada as co-creative director

Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons will collaborate on all creative aspects of the Prada brand, debuting at Milan Fashion Week in September 2020. The announcement came before the coronavirus pandemic escalated. Prada, founded in 1913 by the Prada brothers as a luxury leather goods store, is a family-owned Italian holding known for eclectic high-level ventures spanning sport (Luna Rossa), art (Prada Marfa by Elmgreen & Dragset), architecture (Rem Koolhaas), film (Wes Anderson), and food (Marchesi). Miuccia Prada entered the company in 1971 and became owner in 1978, partnering with Patrizio Bertelli. The Prada Foundation, established in 1993, operates in Milan and Venice (Palazzo Cà Corner della Regina). Raf Simons, an autodidact with a background in industrial design, previously led creative direction at Jil Sander (2005, under Prada Group), Dior (2012–2015), and Calvin Klein (2017–2018). He is an art collector (Cindy Sherman, Sterling Ruby, Mike Kelley) and has curated exhibitions, taught at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, and guest-edited ID Magazine. The partnership is framed as a meeting of intellectual equals, not a generational handover, with both sharing an architectural approach to fashion and a history of artistic collaborations.