Finally, A Prada Store for Pradamaxxers
Being a fashion brand isn't enough these days. It hasn’t been for a minute, actually. Why settle for clothes when you can sink a knitting needle into culture through art exhibition sponsorships, literary clubs or, hell, even a smoothie bar? That same logic applies to retail, too. A flat e-comm site, viewed through the cold glow of a screen, isn’t chic. And so digital fatigue has given way to a yearning for IRL experiences.
We’re in the “go big or go home” era of modern shopping… and boy, has Prada got the memo.
In time for Milan Fashion Week, the Italian luxury label just opened the doors to Prada Galleria, a massive new store in central Milan that’s pure Pradamaxxing. Set within the historic, glass-ceiling Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, where Fratelli Prada opened his first store over a century ago, the Galleria has everything: clothes, bags, and accessories, sure, but also expanded exhibition spaces, a Milanese pastry shop, a screening room, and private salons.
Retail spaces need a hook nowadays, be it the yoga studio at District Vision in Los Angeles or the pottery studio and Japanese restaurant at BASE in New York. But while some tacked-on extras hiding just past racks of pristine clothes can feel random, the sensory overload of Prada Galleria is a natural fit.
That’s because its matriarchal leader, Miuccia Prada, has never stayed in a single lane: the Fondazione Prada art institution has been around for over 30 years, and food is as much a part of the brand as its nylon bags. There’s the Wes Anderson-designed cafe in Milan, but also the Mi Shang Prada Rong Zhai fine dining restaurant in Shanghai — designed by Wong Kar Wai, because of course — for the hungry and Prada-pilled.
Given how much lore is baked into the brand, there are worse ways to spend a day than giving in to Prada’s pull and getting lost in this behemoth Galleria.
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