Kianna In Italy: Prada

PRADA✨A story of a woman’s rise to success & empowerment✨

Long before WW2, two brothers Mario & Marino Prada founded an artisanal leather goods shop in Milan, Italy. Their business was created on the basis of importing handbags and trunks from the UK. Their shop was so small that they never anticipated that their brand would grow into the great fashion empire that it has become today. What I found most captivating about this story was how Mario Prada was certain that no woman in his family should ever take over his business. Funny enough, it wasn’t his son that ended up succeeding him but instead his daughter Luisa who was very up for the challenge. Overtime, the company flourished but not as much as it did when Luisa’s daughter Miuccia Prada took the reins. From that moment on, Prada began to work with only Italian designs and fabrics to expand their brand's handbag collection. At first, the new range of bags weren’t a hit but as time went by, this gave the brand true recognition and fame that it deserved.

As a young woman with big hopes and aspirations, it makes me sad to see that as women we can be doubted for our strength and capabilities based on our gender. I promised myself at a very young age that if ever I was in this type of situation that I would use it as a strong motivator to drive me to succeed -not to prove to those around me that I could do it but instead to prove myself that I can achieve anything I set my mind to if I truly believed in it. So far, this has worked very well for me, especially in moments when I had the most insane goals that I was striving for. Easier said than done but I promise in the end, that it was all worth the hard work, sweat & tears. You don’t know what you are capable of attaining until you try and DO, so never let anyone tell you otherwise! 👊🏻💁🏻‍♀️