Prada's nylon backpack, 1984 — luxury from industrial fabric
Prada's most important product wasn't leather. It was industrial nylon. In 1984 Miuccia Prada, newly in charge of her family's leather goods house, made a backpack from Pocone, a tough water-resistant nylon. Critics called it anti-luxury. Customers made it the It bag of the decade. It now sits in MoMA's collection. The whole idea of luxury sportswear, every nylon crossbody at every airport, starts here.