Vitale, who was Versace’s creative director for a single, critically beloved spring 2026 collection, was not unknown to the Prada Group, as he had been at Miu Miu for more than 14 years. His departure from Miu Miu in January 2025 was perhaps seen as less than loyal. And the new owners wanted their own pick of creative director. “The stories that are around are quite public,” Bertelli says. “Even before Dario left [Miu Miu], we tried to somehow communicate to him to wait three or four months, to see where it could have ended up. He’s ambitious. He made up his mind, there was nothing to do to stop him. I think at the end it was a successful journey for him.”
Bad news and letting employees go is part of the job. “It’s just business. It’s much more difficult to talk about employees that are lower level in the organization of people. The biggest responsibility we have is the family of those thousands of people. But those managers on top, they will find another job.”
When it was time to pick a successor, Prada Group’s inner circle, including Bertelli and his parents, brainstormed, they looked at past shows, they talked to people close to Mulier. They talked to Donatella Versace, though Bertelli makes sure to note, “She was not involved with the choice.” Nor was Prada’s co–creative director Raf Simons, though he had previously worked with Mulier at Calvin Klein. What they wanted was someone with a clear idea of what Versace of today should look like and how to play with the boundaries of the identity of the brand. Bertelli finds rote sexuality, a flavor Versace is known for, “a bit reductive.” But he was attracted to the way Mulier played with sexiness at Alaïa. “One of the reasons we chose him was because he knows how to work with the shapes of the body. You also need someone who can make a sellable product that people like to wear,” Bertelli says, referring to Mulier’s success with Alaïa ballet flats and its oblong Le Teckel bag. Mulier starts in July, and his first show, his menswear collection, will be presented in January. “We need to be strategic with what kind of message we want to give people,” Bertelli says.
Prada’s rise from small-time leather goods company to global recognition roughly followed Bertelli’s childhood—he was born in 1988, and his mother showed her first women’s ready-to-wear collection that year. Today, Prada Group is not just Prada and Miu Miu, but shoe companies Church’s and Car Shoe, the sailing syndicate Luna Rossa, and most recently Versace, which it acquired for around $1.4 billion in December. It also includes the Milan pastry shop Marchesi 1824, from which there is an array of cornettos on offer at the company’s offices in Milan, just next to its modern art museum, Fondazione Prada.
When he was in grade school, Bertelli remembers carrying a Prada nylon backpack with a mix of colors on it, much to his chagrin. “I wanted the same backpack as everyone, the Eastpack, the Invicta,” he says. He attended public schools his whole life, but people still knew who he was. “It was not so easy. But I mean, it is what it is. There was a perception of me before even knowing me. You have to learn how to cope with that and stay with your real friends. I learned very quickly who to trust and who not to trust,” he says. He’s well aware of current discourse around privilege. “You have advantages, you have pressure, especially when you’re a kid so very young. The problem is how you manage it.”
