Why Prada is betting on craftsmanship: Inside the Scandicci leather atelier

At Prada’s leather atelier in Scandicci, on the edge of Florence, Andrea Guerra is taking his time. “If you are in a hurry in the luxury field, you’d better change business,” the Prada Group chief executive says with a shrug. “We are in a world that should be, and should remain, slow. It is a world that should embrace technology, while at the same time valuing creativity and human values.”

Florence is one of Italy’s historic craft districts, famous for its leatherwork since the 13th century. Last month, the normally private factory floor opened its gates to mark the 25th anniversary of the Prada Academy, the maison’s training ground for the next wave of artisans.

There is now an academy in four Italian regions: Tuscany, Marche, Veneto and Umbria, which feed talent directly into Prada’s 23 Italian factories. Since 2021, the Scandicci site alone has trained 571 leather-workers.

Lorenzo Bertelli, Prada Group Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, and Andrea Guerra, Prada Group CEO. Reuters

For Prada’s chief marketing officer, Lorenzo Bertelli – who is also the son of the brand’s co-chief executives, Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli – the academy is not just an addition to the business, but its backbone. “My father always insisted the factories should be our own,” he says.

“People didn’t understand why we chose the hard way, but the problems our competitors have now, we have experienced in making our supply chain as transparent as possible.”

The conversation today around “Made in Italy” has become complicated. Long a label that guaranteed excellence and quality, recent investigations have revealed a network of poor practices at its outer edges, with murky subcontracting chains where wages and working conditions fall far below the level of the dream being sold on the shop floor.

Now, in an attempt to salvage the industry’s reputation and erase exploitation, Italy’s government is preparing legislation that will force all companies to audit every level of their complex supply chains.

Students at the Academy practising shaping leather around a wooden last. Photo: Prada

Prada, meanwhile, is happy to let a few dozen journalists wander through its workshops. Calling it a factory feels like a misnomer, as the vast space is all-white and spotlessly clean and tidy, with the hundred or so employees dressed in white coats. The workers, who are predominantly under the age of 35, are focused on the many steps that go into making the Galleria, Arcadie and Cleo bags.

“Eighty per cent of what we do,” Guerra says, “is hands, hearts and thought.