Miuccia Prada Remains Unconvinced That Twitter Will Save the World
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Fashion designer Miuccia Prada tends to foresee the future by dipping into the past, whether by breathing new life into trippy ’70s prints and grandmotherly suits or, as in the fall 2010 collection she presented last month in Milan, revisiting her own greatest hits from the ’90s. With her talent for looking back to the future, it comes as little surprise that Prada is in no rush to jump into trending “social media” platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Remember that until a few years ago, Prada’s website consisted of the company logo and the promise of an online presence “coming soon.” To Tweet or not to Tweet? That is the question. And it comes up toward the end of Alessandra Galloni‘s profile of Patrizio Bertelli, Prada’s detail-oriented husband and CEO of the Italian fashion house, published in the March issue of WSJ. A spirited dinner party conversation suggests that you shouldn’t hold your breath for a Prada Twitter account.
Bertelli has been urging Prada to engage more online with bloggers and with her many fans. He now called the guests to order and put Prada on the spot: “Let me ask you this: Is it more democratic not to answer people’s questions on the Internet at all?” Bertelli bellowed, as guests stopped their chitchat to listen. “Or is it more democratic to give an answer even if it’s not complete?”
Francesco Vezzoli, an Italian artist who is a good friend of Prada’s and was sitting to her left, suggested that the designer had little choice: “You’re a star, and other stars around you Twitter.”
“Well, what if we found out years from now that Twitter is crap. Maybe years from now, we’ll all have been mistaken,” Prada retorted.
She picked up a meatball with her fork and crossed her foot underneath her on the chair, as one of her thick-heeled shoes plunked to the ground, under the table. “It’s not that I don’t want to embrace the Internet, but I don’t want to just throw random answers out there. In that case, I’d rather not answer,” Prada continued.
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