The Little Shop of Prestigious Parodies in Beverly Hills

The newest European designer to set up shop in Beverly Hills has a sense of humor. Prada, the fine Milanese leather and ready-to-wear company which opened a narrow, elegant store on Brighton Way, sells a spoof of the famous, French, quilted Chanel handbag. Prada’s is made of industrial nylon, with gold chain handles intact, and it’s large enough to hold a week’s groceries.

“Chanel sent us congratulations,” attests Patrizio Bertelli, who runs the family-owned company with his wife Miuccia BianchiPrada, great-granddaughter of the founder. They liked the idea of such a big carry-all with chain shoulder straps, he says. The bag, now 4 years old, and all its variations (priced from $200 to $500), have become a status symbol for fashion-minded working women, particularly New York fashion editors who stuff them with press kits, notebooks, sweats and running shoes.

The fashion parodies don’t stop there. The newest nylon bags come beaded as if they were fine satin and are meant to be carried in the day or evening. T-shirts feature the Prada logo sewn in tiny ‘caviar’ beads. There are also crocodile bracelets, or rather, watch straps without the watch; beaded suede pouches, and handbags made of nylon and leather combinations. Even the store fixtures, also designed by the company, require a second look. Display cases and storage units are made of textured bronze with leather handles, and chairs and couches are slip-covered in French iridescent taffeta.

The Prada customer, says Bertelli, likes ‘contradictions,’ although for the more serious customer there is a full line of crocodile goods.

Indeed, Prada was a sleepy, if prestigious handbag shop that catered to the Italian royal family until Bertelli entered the picture 11 years ago. He was a successful leather goods manufacturer in Tuscany near Florence when Miuccia Prada, who ran her company’s sole shop in Milan, said, “Let’s do business.”

“When they met it was like an explosion,” says Judy Brand Leaf, a devoted customer who lives in Beverly Hills.

Three years after Bertelli and Prada met, they introduced shoes, and a year later opened a second store in Milan, followed by shops in Paris, Madrid and New York. (They were married two years ago, but engaged for eight.) Now there are 10 Prada shops worldwide, plus a separate franchise of 10 boutiques in the Orient.