Talking with Prada, it's apparent how tough she is on herself as a designer and as someone with the potential power and influence to make her views more widely known. A political science graduate, she espoused the politics of the far left (which, for the Italian bourgeoisie, invariably translates as communism-lite). In 1971 she took on her grandfather's accessories company and, since then, she has kept a tight lid on her political convictions. However, these are increasingly threatening to bubble over. "I can't talk about them because I would look ridiculous or misunderstood. The problem is that to be a rich fashion designer you are supposed to be stupid and I hate the idea of appearing like an intellectual and so I indulge in a certain camouflage. To be politically serious is to be so different from everything else. I hate myself talking about things that I am not doing."
Is designing clothes enough, I ask? She taps the plastic cup against the table with machine-gun intensity. "You have an idea of justice, but then you find yourself doing just the opposite and it is an uncomfortable position," she admits. But doesn't this reflect the overall weakness of the fashion person in politics? "Exactly. If I was a furniture designer, I could talk. But fashion designers are considered the worst of the worst. I am very sensitive to this feeling about fashion."