Bertelli

"Miuccia and Bertelli have always been portrayed as the yin and yang: the brilliant creative, a refined intellectual lent to the creation of luxury and fashion, who meets the gruff industrialist with an exceptional intuition akin to the true animal spirit of capitalism. I will discover that this is an oversimplification of the complexity of a couple where creativity and business blend, roles change and subvert depending on the moment. That Bertelli has an irascible character is beyond question, capable also of temper tantrums and acts befitting a patriarchal leader of the last century, such as when he smashed the headlights of an employee's car who had parked in the wrong spot with a hammer. But he is also a creative who sketches designs, and Miuccia has a knack for business: among the two there is an elective affinity – I am told by some of their closest collaborators – which also thrives on lively discussions, going beyond the tensions of a couple's relationship marked by inevitable separations and embraces, always present in the decisions that matter."

"Prada wants to believe in its own future and is working to transform a company shaped around Miuccia and Bertelli into a group capable of remaining independent with its brands, Church’s and Car Shoe, in addition to Prada and Miu Miu, as well as the Marchesi patisserie. The time I met him, to my question whether he wanted to sell, Bertelli, interviewed for Bloomberg, replied indignantly: "I have never sold anything! I still have the bicycle that my uncle left me." That day, in 2021, demonstrating how much he thought about succession, Bertelli candidly admitted that his eldest son Lorenzo would take over the reins of the Group."

"Miuccia is one of the three richest women in Italy. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the Lady and Bertelli have a personal fortune of about 7 billion dollars each, built in less than fifty years, with an exponential acceleration after the listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2011."

"My curiosity is driven by the fact that, to tell how Miuccia and Bertelli transformed a shop in the center of Milan into one of the most desired luxury brands globally – with almost fifteen thousand employees, twenty-six factories, and over six hundred stores in seventy countries – one must start from the beginning, from the passion of the founding grandfather, the progenitor of the Prada brand, and from the Milan in which he decided to produce and sell products for the elite, sought-after, precious, unique."