Prada's Impact
Much of what set Prada apart from the rest of the fashion world is her seeming disregard for the fashion industry. Prada has always blazed her own trail and demonstrated a fearlessness in trying new styles. Her experimentation once included a raincoat that was transparent until it became wet, at which point it turned opaque. In 2004, she dazzled a front row of critics at a show with a collection of souvenir clothes that included straw hats and embroidered moccasins. In another designer's hands they might have been seen as garish; in Prada's, the items packed chic appeal.
"If you want to know what a season is about, you don't miss the Prada show," one fashion director told TIME magazine in 2004. "She never follows anyone else's lead, just her own original energy. Her collections are completely an expression of herself."
In 2010, Prada was the named the McKim Medal Laureate (for achievements in fashion and business) at the Villa Aurelia of the American Academy in Rome. In 2012, an exhibition of Prada's work was showcased, along with that of the late fashion pioneer Elsa Schiaparelli, at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.