Prada made trunks, handbags and shoes for ninety years before it made a perfume.
The company started in 1913, when Mario Prada and his brother opened Fratelli Prada in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the grand arcade in the centre of Milan. They sold leather goods, steamer trunks and travel articles. In 1919 the shop was named an official supplier to the Italian royal household, which is why the House of Savoy crest and a knotted rope still sit in the logo. In 1978 Mario's granddaughter, Miuccia Prada, took over and turned a luggage shop into a fashion house.
Fragrance came late. The first Prada perfume launched in 2004, built by Carlos Benaim, Max Gavarry and Clément Gavarry around amber and spice. The scent that set the house style came later, L'Homme in 2016, composed by Daniela Andrier around a clean, powdery iris. Paradoxe, the women's launch, followed in 2022.
One thing to be clear about. The name on a Prada bottle is a licence. The perfumes are made and sold by a fragrance company under agreement, not by the same workshop that stitched the trunks. That is completely normal in this trade, nearly every designer scent works this way, but it is worth knowing that Prada on a box refers to the style and the name, not a Prada laboratory.
That clean Prada polish, without the licence markup: our L'homme Elegant (our take on Prada L'Homme) and Riddle (our take on Paradoxe) are UK-made 35% sprays. See the Prada collection or the best Prada dupes in the UK.
