Diversity as a heritage
«The fashion industry thrives on creativity and in its DNA it has the ability to change continuously, season after season, with an alchemy between the intuitions of the creative directors and the demands of the market – explains Lorenzo Bertelli -. Prada is a global group, our collections are already appreciated in apparently very different countries and by people of different backgrounds, generations, cultural heritage. The creative process can only benefit from having work groups with equally diverse people“. “I believe that each of us feels the need to return to sociability made up of face-to-face encounters, conversations in a restaurant, attending live shows – adds Malika Savell -. It is not just a desire for escapism or fun: it enriches us more to sit at a table, at work and in a restaurant, perhaps in front of good food, with people of different ages, backgrounds, social or geographical origins than with people who are very similar to us. The same is true when we meet or work with people of different sexual orientation or who have a different skin color or who speak languages we do not know. In each person there is a world, which must be respected and discovered».
Internship, not “simple” internships
Another piece of the strategy is the program Generation Prada Internship, which provides for a paid internship reserved for talents from different cultures and backgrounds, with the opportunity to operate in the field by joining the corporate and retail teams of the Prada group, who will work with various organizations to attract and select candidates. The internship is designed to offer professional training experiences to the next generation of leaders and to increase the recruitment of different talents.
Focus on gender equality
More focused on Prada Group Unfpa Education Module: in partnership con l’ Unfpa, the United Nations agency for sexual and reproductive health , the group will develop a training module for young women that will exploit fashion and design as an expression to promote gender equality. The module will be developed for and with young women from Kenya and Ghana, to offer the opportunity to share their experiences and use fashion to generate a positive social and economic impact. «Within our industry and our group in particular, enormous steps have been taken towards an equal representation of women and men – explains Lorenzo Bertelli -. 60% of the employees of the Prada group are women and many hold managerial roles. But the initiative with the UNFPA wants to go further, because gender equality is still a very distant goal in many sectors and in too many countries. Fashion is a language, a tool, it has always had the ability to interpret, represent and encourage cultural and social changes “.
Focus on color talents
Last but not least, Malika Savell and Lorenzo Bertelli, have thought of an initiative dedicated to people of color. Let’s dispel any doubts: for some years in fact we have known that saying “colored” to indicate a person of African origin is considered offensive. First, because it comes from a definition of colonial and slave era (“colored”), second, because it would imply that a kind of standard, white skin, and a “deviation” from the standard, black skin. In the United States, therefore, people of African origin, near or far, are “African Americans” or, less recommended, “Black Americans”. With “people of color” we think of many, really many, more people: South Americans, Asians, Native Americans. Hence the translation that the Prada group used, “people of color”. The initiative is called Prada + Dorchester Industries Experimental Design Lab and foresees the collaboration with Dorchester Industries, fondata da Theaster Gates , Co-chair of the Prada Group’s Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council, for the creation of a three-year Design Lab that will recruit and fund talented color designers in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. Each group will work on defined projects and the Design Lab will act as an exchange and training space for future designers and creatives. Each year, the Prada group will award a prize to an artist or designer to encourage his activity and allow him to launch his own capsule within the space.
External and internal commitment
“Taken as a whole, this program reflects Prada’s wide-ranging strategy to create an inclusive culture, which also passes through the activities of leadership training and workshops on diversity, equity and inclusion currently underway, held by experts in the sector – adds Lorenzo Prada -. We have offices around the world and courses and workshops are designed for all employees. It will never be possible, I believe, to always be able to do the right thing, always say the right thing, never offend anyone. Because the diversity and the sensitivities are infinite. But we must start from this awareness and we must always be ready to admit any small or big mistakes and correct them ».