Prada opens multi-floor Prada Galleria in Milan's historic shopping arcade

Italian luxury house Prada has opened Prada Galleria, an eight-floor complex spanning retail, hospitality, art and history in Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the 19th-century shopping arcade that has housed Fratelli Prada since 1913. The project connects two sides of the arcade's central octagon through a new underground passage.

Overseen by Miuccia Prada, the complex is built around the idea that Prada's identity takes shape through ongoing dialogue with art, architecture, cinema, culture and sport, rather than a single creative direction.

At the original site of Fratelli Prada, the Prada Donna store has been renewed with an expanded underground level that nearly doubles its display space, bringing together womenswear, an extended travel offer, and home and beauty products alongside historic murals and archival objects. Diagonally across, Prada Uomo is now linked to Prada Donna via a new underground tunnel, the Passaggio Segreto, which houses an exhibition on lesser-known episodes from the company's history.

Above the Uomo store sits Marchesi 1824, the historic Milanese pastry shop. On the floor above that, the piano nobile hosts Pradasphere, the brand's first permanent exhibition, tracing more than a century of history from Fratelli Prada's 1913 founding to today through archival artefacts, some on view for the first time. The exhibition, open by registration, follows earlier travelling editions in London and Hong Kong in 2014 and Shanghai in 2023.

The second floor houses the Studio, a series of salon-style rooms for personalised shopping by appointment, and the Appartamento, an invitation-only space styled as an 18th-century apartment where photographer Andreas Gursky has curated an exhibition of his work, used for private dinners and events.

At the top of the building is Osservatorio Fondazione Prada, an outpost of Fondazione Prada dedicated to visual experimentation and research at the intersection of technology, contemporary culture and artistic expression.