Talk to a mathematician or an architect and they’ll tell you the triangle is the strongest, most powerful shape. Ask any fashion-minded individual and they’ll say the very same – especially if it’s flipped upside down, is stamped with “dal 1913,” and adorns a Prada handbag.
According to the Italian maison, the triangle’s reputation precedes it: “Precise, direct, meaningful, it is a shape that resonates without words.” While it was Prada’s founder, Mario Prada (grandfather of Miuccia), who first used the tricornered shape, it was undoubtedly Miuccia who helped embed it into popular culture via her global ready-to-wear label.
Shop guide to the best Prada bags:
Beginning in 1913, Mario and his brother Martino – the Fratelli Prada, as they were known – operated a leather goods and luggage emporium out of Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II shopping pavilion. The store, stocked with a combination of made-in-Italy bags and travel trunks imported from England, catered to the well-heeled locals, including the country’s aristocrats. At the time, Prada earned the honour of being an “Official Supplier of the Italian Royal Household.”
It wasn’t until Miuccia took over the business, however (prior to Miuccia’s creative leadership, the label was helmed by her mother, Luisa, for nearly 20 years), that Prada became what it is today. Like the triangle, Prada needs no introduction; its success has largely been attributed to Miuccia’s advocacy for “ugly chic” and the designer’s feminist philosophies, informed by her PhD in political science from the University of Milan.
“I’m always trying to do something that is… never to please men in the most banal way,” Miuccia told WWD in 2013. It’s this exact sort of thinking that led Miuccia to fancy nylon, a workaday fabric with primarily utilitarian applications, over silk and leather (“Suddenly, nylon started to look more intriguing to me than couture fabrics,” Miuccia has said). She introduced her Vela backpack in 1984, and the rest is fashion handbag history. Learn all about the Vela, and all of the most iconic, best Prada bags, below.
One of 2026’s most covetable bags, Prada’s Route made its runway debut in the spring/summer 2026 collection and has since caught the attention of Alexa Chung and a whole host of fashion editors. It taps into the wider shift towards luxury accessories with utilitarian sensibilities, where practical details are as much a part of the appeal as the design itself. With its canvas fabrication, clean lines and functional, multi-pocket construction, the Route is a fine example of Prada’s knack for making the practical covetable. It sits comfortably alongside the house’s nylon backpacks and Re-Edition styles, but its considered detailing gives it a new feel.
Making its runway debut in 2024, Prada’s Bonnie quickly became a favourite among the celebrity set, with Bella Hadid, Selena Gomez, Olivia Dean and Sarah Pidgeon among its fans. Its boxy silhouette is relatively pared-back, but a glossy finish and subtle belt detailing lend the design just enough personality to distinguish it from your average shoulder bag. The line has since expanded beyond polished leather to include beige nubuck, pony hair and suede, bringing a welcome dose of texture to the signature shape. Available in multiple sizes, the Bonnie is equally suited to evenings out and everyday office commutes, making it a versatile addition to any handbag rotation.
Bonnie Small Crocodile Leather Handbag
Spend 15 minutes on fashion TikTok and you’ll be convinced that the aughts were a great time in fashion – especially for Prada. The decade birthed some of the maison’s best-known bags, examples so incredible they’ve been reintroduced and remixed several times over. In 2007, Miuccia introduced the Galleria, a rectangular bag crafted in elegantly textured Saffiano leather (a material patented by Mario Prada) with two top handles, two zipper closures, and another compartment in between. Today, the bag consists of 83 hand-finished pieces. Named after the gleaming Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II that housed the first-ever Prada boutique, the elegant bag was bound to find a permanent place within Prada’s delightfully crowded hall of handbag fame. In spring 2023, Prada reimagined its classic bag – the rectangular shape offering a blank canvas for artistic intervention – with splashes of pop colours. Today, the Galleria comes in everyday wearable neutrals as well as autumn-ready pops of red, tan and beige.
The Cleo first captured our attention on the arms of the models who walked in the Multiple Views spring/summer 2021 womenswear collection (a year shy of Raf Simons’s appointment as co-creative director). Crafted in brushed calfskin and lightweight spazzolato calf leather (a glossy leather slightly less slick than patent). Currently, the Cleo is offered in inky black, milky whites, and a powdery pistachio hue. Of course, it also comes in a bedazzled iteration for those who want something that can catch the light a bit more. Two silhouettes (a flap style or one with an interior snap closure) make Cleo twice as nice.
Pre-Owned Cleo Flap Leather Shoulder Bag
Cleo Flap Brushed Leather Shoulder Bag
Then-teenage millennials might have first been introduced to this bag in the 1999 rom-com 10 Things I Hate About You. (“I like my Skechers, but I love my Prada backpack.”) Lucky for them, they’d soon be able to shop the bag in a new fabrication: a synthetic nylon textile called Econyl, which is woven from recycled, purified plastic material collected from the ocean. Dubbed the Re-Nylon Backpack since its reintroduction in 2019, the style was originally known as the Vela and represented the first application of Miuccia’s ingenious impulse to embrace the utilitarian textile. She did to nylon what Gabrielle Chanel did to jersey, and now it features heavily across all of Prada’s categories – from midi-skirts to puffed-up boots and sneakers. The Re-Nylon Backpack is currently offered in regular and medium sizes, and it’s just as lovable as it was back then.
By now, you’ll have realised that Mrs. Prada mines her own archive for inspiration just like the rest of us. In late 2019, Prada reprised two of its beloved bags – the Re-Edition 2000 and the Re-Edition 2005 – only the second time around, the nylon used was Econyl, a novel textile spun from recycled ocean plastics, fishing nets, and textile waste. This Saffiano leather-trimmed shoulder bag comes with a few extras: a woven shoulder strap, a removable chain strap, and a removable Re-Nylon zipper pouch with a Re-Edition keychain. It’s a bag that had Hailey Bieber, Sofia Richie, and Lori Harvey all swooning when it launched.
