[Prada employee assembling bag parts]
[Worker cutting leather parts for making bags]
[Cotton reel and worker in the background using a sewing machine]
Luca Solca (interview): “Today, after many years of atonement, after many years of focusing on organic growth, Prada becomes – in a way – acquisitive again, with one of the most iconic designer brands in Italy. And I think differently from the past, a brand that has a different DNA and a different positioning than the minimalist Prada, it’s a maximalist Versace. So it’s going to be interesting to see how they’re going to run it and make it complementary.”
[Worker sewing bag handles]
[Bags under construction, worker sewing in the background]
Luca Solca (interview): “I don’t know if Versace is necessarily a brand that is very high in terms of unprompted recognition. I think that it is long past its heyday and like in the case of Valentino, the challenge and the opportunity here is to make it relevant again. Valentino managed to do that by inventing a new, iconic style and a new iconic design which was the rock stud. I wonder if potentially Versace needs to do something similar. They have to invent something which is going to make the brand attractive, desirable and interesting again.”
[Prada Industrial Academy trainees making handbags]
Luca Solca (interview): “My understanding is that with fashion you need to continue to provide innovation and that innovation has to be a bit of a bridge between the heritage DNA that the brands have and the market opportunity where they’re trying to go. And I think this is in a way the task of Dario Vitale, the new creative director, but it’s also the task when it comes to deciding the vision of the brand and the strategic direction of the brand. It is also the task of senior management.”
[“Prada” written on the shoes of a worker]
[Workers refining handbags]
[Handbags on the production line]
This script was provided by The Associated Press.