patrizio bertelli

Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.

• Prada CEO Patrizio Bertelli — Miuccia Prada's husband — said recently that while counterfeit Prada bags aren't necessarily good for the company, they're not bad, either. "We're happier to have them than not have them," he said. "Don't you think it's sad for a brand that no one wants to copy them?" [Styleite]
  

• Angelina Jolie's jewelry collection with Robert Procop — who designed her engagement ring for Brad Pitt — will be sold in selected stores this September. Previous sales were available by private appointment only. Proceeds from the pieces will benefit Jolie's charitable foundation the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict. [Elle]
  

• Singer Beth Ditto had some choice words for Karl Lagerfeld for calling Adele "a little too fat" earlier this year. "Karl Lagerfeld used to be this really fat, eccentric dude," she said. "To me, only a person who was fat could get away with saying something like that." [Fashion Etc.]
  

• Bryan Yambao, the blogger known as Bryanboy, has been added to the cast list for the upcoming season of America's Next Top Model. Yambao's precise role on the show is unclear, but he'll be seen alongside host Tyra Banks, as well as Kelly Cutrone, Rob Evans, and Johnny Wujek. [Stylelist]
  

• Model Karmen Pedaru is featured on the cover of a supplement to the June issue of Vogue Paris, photographed by Hans Feurer. Pedaru stars in an editorial called La Sauvage — meaning The Wild — wearing swimsuits and beach accessories inspired by nature. [The Huffington Post]
  

• The work of photographer Gordon Parks, who shot fashion for magazines like Vogue and Life in the '40s, '50s, and '60s, is on display at the International Center of Photography in New York. The exhibit celebrates Parks's 100th birthday. [The Cut]

>> As Prada prepares for its initial public offering in Hong Kong later this month, details that were once kept private about the company are now being filed publicly. Last week, we learned that Prada is estimated to be worth some $15 billion; Now, thanks to a 450-page document released today by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange website, we know that Miuccia Prada earned 9.7 million euros (approx. $14.1 million) last year, while her husband and Prada CEO Patrizio Bertelli made 10 million euros (approx. $14.6 million) in the same period of time — making them "two of fashion’s best-paid stars," as WWD points out. [WWD]

>> Although Prada has had no comment on the matter, it's reportedly prepping for an initial public offering in Hong Kong on June 23 or 24. With that long-awaited event on the horizon, Intesa Sanpaolo Group, which owns 5.1 percent of Prada and is one of the banks leading the IPO (Miuccia Prada and husband and Prada CEO Patrizio Bertelli control the other 95 percent of the company), has reportedly estimated Prada to be valued at 10.7 billion euros ($15.1 billion). This follows after a record year of profits and sales in 2010 — Prada reported a 150.4 percent surge in net profits to 250.8 million euros ($331 million), and revenues for 2010 totaled 2.05 billion euros ($2.71 billion), up 31.1 percent compared with the year before. The Italian house, which said it was in debt by 408.6 million euros (approx. $575.6 million) in March, is also estimated to be debt free by 2014. [WWD, Bloomberg]

>> China is the fastest growing market for fashion and luxury — and the industry is definitely taking notice. Anna Wintour recently made her first trip to China over Thanksgiving, and later wrote that she hopes China will soon have its own Vogue Fashion Fund; Diane von Furstenberg visited earlier this month and said, "I’d like to sell every Chinese a T-shirt."

And now Prada, which has seen a 51 percent surge in revenue from the region in the first nine months of 2010, is planning to restage its Spring 2011 fashion show in Beijing on Jan. 22. Both Prada CEO Patrizio Bertelli and Miuccia Prada are expected to attend, and Prada plans on creating a series of new items specifically for the event.

The notoriously straight-shooting and often volatile chief executive of Prada, Patrizio Bertelli, is on the cover of the March issue of WSJ., out this Saturday. He is profiled along with wife Miuccia Prada in an article discussing among many things the couple's 30-year-long relationship, Prada's initial public offering, the company's debt build-up as a result of acquisitions in the 1990s, and the current household controversy over internet strategies and whether or not to dress celebrities.

The article opens with Bertelli shouting at Neiman Marcus' 72-year-old chairman, Burt Tansky, about how the Dallas-based department store displays its Prada merchandise. But thing really get interesting when the interviewer inquires about the brand's internet plans and brings up a recent U.S. newspaper article suggesting Prada was late to the online world compared with brands like Burberry. Miuccia Prada's reaction: 

"I think it's bulls-. Why does showing a photo of someone wearing a trench coat online mean  being open to the world? What's that got to do with anything?"

While Bertelli is trying to convince Prada to interact more online—both with bloggers and fans—she is adimentely opposed to Twitter and feels there something fundamentally wrong with the way other designers "throw random answers out there." Bertelli acknowledges hers is an "elitist response" to a "democratic" medium.

The article goes on to reveal another ongoing dispute over celebrity dressing: "He says that we are snobs and that we don't understand pop culture," Prada says.

When planning for the upcoming year, Bertelli's focus seems to be on store expansions and opening new boutiques in order to lessen Prada's dependance on U.S. wholesale businesses, like that of Mr. Tansky's. The complete article will be on newsstands March 13.

>> Unauthorized Miuccia Prada Biography Reportedly Taking Italy By Storm —Vita Prada, an unauthorized biography on Miuccia Prada which was released in Italy just before the holidays, is reportedly a bestseller in the country.  The book, written by journalist Gian Luigi Paracchini, who covered fashion for twelve years at Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, chronicles how Miuccia first met future husband Patrizio Bertelli at a trade fair — he was selling bags, and she told him: "You're ripping off my bags."  And of course, the infamous moment when Patrizio, known for his temper, reportedly smashed the mirrors in a Miu Miu store "because they make everybody look fat" is included.  Miuccia's reaction to the book? Apparently: "I don't think I'm as big a b*tch as you think, but I had fun reading it." [Opera Chic]

>> Prada Could Become Even More of a Family Affair —Prada CEO Patrizio Bertelli wants you to know that he and wife Miuccia Prada are both in good “physical and psychological shape,” but their 19 and 20-year-old sons Giulio and Lorenzo, who Miuccia doesn't like to talk about by name, could be joining the company at some point. “But if they do, they will start out as warehouse keepers.”  He also mentioned that upgrading Prada's website is a major priority: "Ideally, I’d like to sell clothes online that aren’t in stores yet and make them look catchy, not like a catalog." [WWD]

Prada is jumping on the designer-book bandwagon. The Italian house has unveiled a 706-page book, titled Prada, that highlights the house's 30 years of fashion, art, and more. "For Prada, fashion, luxury and style go beyond producing an infinity of clothes and shoes, so the book wants to illustrate the various aspects through which Prada expresses itself," said Patrizio Bertelli, chief executive officer of Prada Group. The tome, which retails for about $150, will hit Prada stores, select bookstores, and Prada.com.

Patrizio Bertelli and Miuccia Prada have created a 706-page book for the purpose of capturing Prada's innovations in fashion, art, architecture, and film throughout the past three decades.

The Italian brand has established itself as more than a producer of beautiful clothing and handbags with a history of championing young artists—Tom Sachs, Mariko Mori, Nathalie Djurberg, and Francesco Vezzoli; forming the Prada Art Foundation; and investing in a number of public arts projects including the recent Prada Transformer in Seoul, designed by Rem Koolhaas.

As Bertelli, CEO of Prada Group, explained to WWD, "The book wants to illustrate the various aspects through which Prada expresses itself."

"Prada" will be sold internationally in Prada stores for about $150.

[WWD]

>> Bold as she is in the designing arena, Miuccia Prada is less than forthcoming in other areas — she won't speak her sons' names on the record, despite the fact that she'll talk about their political leanings, and she won't publicly admit to admiring any designers — “I’ve said before but not now" — or well-dressed celebrities.  W grills Miuccia about all this and more — including a potentially incriminating photo of her husband and Prada CEO Patrizio Bertelli which has set off gossip — in their September 2009 issue.

She's not letting the economic crisis affect her.

“The only difference that I noticed is that you have to be more and more yourself. What is really selling is what is really Prada. You can’t do some generic bullsh*t.”

Same goes for those pictures of her husband, who she calls "Bertelli," looking cozy in the subway with a blond woman. 

“Gossip — gossip is everywhere, so what do you do? Of course, I pay attention, but after, what do you do? Nothing.”

She likes Marc Jacobs »