This September, Prada returns to where it all began. Since 1913, the fashion house has expanded to more than 400 storefronts nestled everywhere from SoHo to Shibuya. But this site is singular: It’s where the house first set up shop as Fratelli Prada in Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. Now, the space has been rechristened Prada Galleria and stretches across eight floors of shopping, exhibitions, and activations.
Prada Galleria, named for the glass-vaulted shopping arcade in which it sits, brings together the house’s extended universe, from the latest womenswear and menswear to archival displays from the art-focused Fondazione Prada. It’s a far cry from the humble shop Mario and Martino Prada founded to sell leather goods, steamer trunks, and jewelry (though keen visitors may notice original wooden shelving from that first outpost remains). Across the floors, the house’s evolution through the 20th century under Mario’s daughter Luisa Prada and, later, Luisa’s daughter Miuccia, is made evident to even the most unfamiliar audiences.
The womenswear boutique, newly expanded, connects to menswear via an underground passageway, atop which sits the pastry shop Marchesi 1824, acquired by Prada in 2014. Higher up, a floor for personalized shopping appointments and private salons awaits. The top levels house Osservatorio Fondazione Prada, the foundation’s center for art and visual experimentation, which has previously collaborated with the likes of Miranda July and Dara Birnbaum. On its own floor, “Pradasphere” is the first permanent exhibition devoted to the house and its history. Drawing on Prada’s vast archives, it traces the label’s evolution and its ongoing dialogues with art, architecture, design, and culture.
Today, the Galleria is celebrating the opening of its doors with verve: the 2026 edition of Vogue World, timed to the kick off of Milan Fashion Week, will be strutting by its doors in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. Visitors can duck into Prada to see the new archival exhibition, or a site-specific installation in the Osservatorio by Hito Steyerl, “The Island,” which explores the climate crisis through the lens of quantum physics. What Prada seems to be betting on, with it’s staggering new footprint, is that any visitor, from anywhere in the world, will find a point of interest in its most ambitious undertaking yet. How could they not?
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