The story of Prada began in 1913, when Mario Prada opened his first boutique in the heart of Milan, inside the prestigious Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. From the very beginning, the store stood out for the elegance and quality of its luxury travel goods and accessories, crafted with fine materials and meticulous artisanal care. It quickly became a go-to destination for a sophisticated clientele, both Italian and international. In 1919, Prada received a significant honor: the title of Official Supplier to the Italian Royal Household, allowing the brand to incorporate the House of Savoy crest into its logo a symbol of prestige and authority.

Today, Prada is recognized as one of the most influential fashion brands in the world. Its collections range from leather goods to apparel, footwear, eyewear, and fragrances each piece marked by a distinctive style that blends innovation, elegance, and exceptional attention to detail. Every creation strikes a perfect balance between aesthetic avant-garde and craftsmanship tradition, two complementary forces that have always defined the brand’s identity.

In recent years, alongside its ongoing pursuit of style, Prada has embarked on a concrete path toward innovation. This commitment is reflected in the adoption of cutting-edge technologies, the optimization of production processes, and the continuous evolution of its organizational models. But for Prada, innovation isn’t just about technology it also means enhancing efficiency across the entire supply chain, empowering artisanal expertise with digital tools, and ensuring a more agile, responsive, and competitive production system.

This vision is exemplified by the adoption of the IRIS system, a visual recognition technology designed to optimize the cutting of complex patterned fabrics. IRIS has revolutionized a traditionally manual phase, transforming it into a fast, precise, and automated process that contributes to a more efficient and sustainable production flow.

The system can detect and cut large-scale panel images, up to 1.5 x 2 meters in size, ensuring a fully automated and continuous workflow. Thanks to its automatic image recognition technology, the result is consistently flawless, with no interruptions or inaccuracies.

One of IRIS’s most advanced features is its ability to deform and adapt image placements while maintaining the integrity of the outer perimeter. This ensures perfect continuity between cut panels and the finished garment. Even the most intricate fabrics can be managed with exceptional precision, guaranteeing visual consistency and high tailoring quality.

Enhancing this capability is the new IRIS platform for panel fabric management and cutting, an intelligent tool that reconstructs the image directly on the machine. The system automatically identifies the most suitable areas of the fabric to use as a reference sample, allowing for accurate image straightening and perfect alignment during cutting.

All of these innovations align seamlessly with Prada’s sustainability philosophy. By optimizing material usage, reducing waste, and improving final product quality, the brand not only lessens its environmental impact but also preserves and elevates the artisanal tradition that has defined it for over a century.

The adoption of IRIS represents far more than a technological upgrade it is a strategic choice that merges aesthetics with responsibility, tradition with the future. It is the tangible sign of a fashion brand that evolves consciously, never compromising on the values that made it great: excellence in detail, respect for human labor, and a forward-looking vision built on authentic and shared foundations.