• Prada
• Armani
• Versace
• Missoni
• Etro
• Zegna
• Loro Piana

Miuccia Prada’s 1984 nylon backpack was an impudent choice for a house built on leather goods. Her grandfather, Mario, had opened the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II shop in 1913, and her mother managed the business before Miuccia took charge in 1978, developing it with Patrizio Bertelli. The synthetic bag let her question what deserved a luxury price from inside the family firm. By the late 1980s, her nylon backpack retailed for about $450, and today, a medium Re-Nylon version sells for $2,600. Miuccia shares Prada’s creative direction with Raf Simons while designing Miu Miu, and her son Lorenzo oversees group marketing and social responsibility. This September’s planned Prada Galleria opening gives that history an exhibition alongside Marchesi 1824 and a private client salon. An underground passage will connect the men’s and women’s boutiques beneath the arcade.

Silvana Armani’s first solo ready-to-wear collection, shown on March 1, 2026, included more pockets and no hats, a modest declaration of independence after four decades alongside her uncle, Giorgio Armani, who died in September 2025. Armani had built his reputation by adjusting the conventions he learned while working at Cerruti. The softer, lighter jacket he developed under his own label, founded with Sergio Galeotti in 1975, made a suit less encumbering to the person inside it. Richard Gere wore Armani’s relaxed tailoring in the 1980 film American Gigolo, bringing jackets with less internal padding and a looser drape to a wider audience. Silvana now directs womenswear, and longtime collaborator Leo Dell’Orco handles menswear, preserving decades of studio experience while ownership remains unsettled. Armani’s will reportedly calls for an initial stake sale, with a larger sale or stock-market listing envisaged later.

Gianni Versace learned to make clothes in his mother’s dressmaking workshop in Reggio Calabria, long before he put them on a Milan runway. Versace launched his label in 1978 with his brother Santo’s business support, and by 1982 was making metal mesh drape like fabric, dressing the body in something that resembled armor without offering much concealment. His sister Donatella, already a creative force within the house, became its artistic director after his death in 1997. The green dress she designed for Jennifer Lopez at the 2000 Grammys prompted a flood of searches that Google credits with inspiring Google Images. Prada completed its purchase of Versace in December 2025 and installed Pieter Mulier (formerly of Alaïa and Calvin Klein) as creative chief the following July. His first collection is planned for early 2027, while the new owners intend to phase out Versace Jeans Couture and concentrate on the main label.

Raschel machines used for patterned shawls helped Ottavio and Rosita Missoni develop the zigzag knit that eventually became their signature. When they opened their Gallarate workshop in 1953, he brought experience making knitted tracksuits, and she came from a textile-producing family. They treated the machinery as something to experiment with, building color into the cloth itself. Their daughter, Angela, took creative charge in 1997 as Rosita moved into homewares. The family sold its last shares in May 2026, leaving Italian investment firm FSI with 73 percent and German group Katjes Quiet Luxury with 27 percent, but the studio retains a direct connection: current creative director Alberto Caliri joined in 1998 under Angela. The family foundation also preserves Ottavio’s work at Gallarate’s MA*GA museum, where his tapestries are assembled from knitted remnants.

A paisley brocade nightgown made by Gerolamo “Gimmo” Etro’s grandmother appeared in the house’s 2018 anniversary exhibition at Milan’s MUDEC, alongside the more expected runway clothes. He credited it with starting his fascination with fabrics. Etro founded his textile company in Milan in 1968, before the surname appeared on whole wardrobes. His children, Kean and Veronica, eventually directed menswear and womenswear, while Jacopo oversaw textiles and the home and accessories businesses. That exhibition paired 50 outfits with objects from the Etros’ personal collections and MUDEC’s own holdings. After appointing Marco De Vincenzo in 2022, the family sold its remaining stake in December 2025. He departed this March, while L Catterton remains the majority owner.

For much of its early history, Zegna dressed men whose devoted tailor got the credit. Ermenegildo founded his wool mill in Trivero, Piedmont, in 1910, and his sons, Aldo and Angelo, moved into ready-to-wear in 1968, finally putting the family name on the finished garment. At the start of 2026, another pair of brothers, Gildo Zegna’s sons Angelo and Edoardo, became co-CEOs of the Zegna brand while their father became group executive chairman. The listed group remains family-controlled, a continuity artistic director Alessandro Sartori made visible at the January 2026 show. Its set incorporated clothes from Gildo and his cousin Paolo’s wardrobes, placing the new collection beside garments the family had already spent years wearing.

Sergio Loro Piana’s widow, Maria Luisa, remembers customers wearing the Horsey jacket over their city suits, an afterlife for sportswear developed for Italy’s equestrian team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. As she told El País, Sergio understood the customer’s sporting life because he shared it. The company behind that jacket began with Pietro Loro Piana’s textile business in Quarona, Piedmont, in 1924. His nephew Franco took over in the 1940s, before Franco’s sons Sergio and Pier Luigi expanded into finished luxury goods after taking charge in the 1970s. Family control lasted until the majority sale to LVMH in 2013. The French group now owns 94 percent, and its appointment of Frédéric Arnault as CEO in 2025 put another family’s heir in charge.