Lorenzo Bertelli believes that artificial intelligence and artisanal intelligence are the twin engines powering the future of the fashion industry. Proof of this vision lies in Prada’s continued investment in training the next generation of skilled talent across its companies.
For the past 25 years, the Prada Academy — an in-house training school established at every one of the group’s manufacturing sites — has been shaping the expert workforce behind everything, from leather goods to ready-to-wear. to footwear. And its reach is about to grow even further: with the upcoming 100% acquisition of Versace from Capri Holdings set for December 2, the Academy is poised to welcome a new chapter and an even broader pool of young artisans eager to learn their craft.
During a tour of the pristine Scandicci facility — one of the group’s most important production hubs for Prada and Miu Miu leather goods near Florence, and home to about 375 employees, 71 per cent of whom are women — it was apparent that luxury manufacturing is far more than an assembly line. “This is industrial craftsmanship,” noted Andrea Guerra, the group’s CEO, who will work alongside Lorenzo Bertelli as the latter steps into the role of executive chairman to reshape Versace, a brand set to benefit from Prada’s industrial savoir-faire.
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“Eighty percent of what we do is made of hands, thought, and heart,” Guerra noted. “Leather, a living and rather temperamental material, requires an eye sharp enough to catch differences that would escape even a forensic detective. Without that borderline-obsessive care, Prada products simply wouldn’t exist,” he insisted, praising the art of slowness: “In luxury, there’s no room for haste.”
If craftsmanship moves slowly, the prices of luxury goods certainly haven’t. Guerra was unfazed. “They reflect the intrinsic value of our products, the way they’re crafted,” he argued, making the case that excellence has its own economics. “And so far, our consumers have understood that, and rewarded us.” The numbers seem to agree. The Group closed the period of the nine months ending 30 September 2025 with net revenues of €4.07 billion, marking a solid 9% year-on-year increase and extending Prada’s streak to 19 consecutive quarters of growth. Retail continued to prove its strength: retail sales reached €3.65 billion, also up 9% year-on-year, supported by strong like-for-like performance and a healthy contribution from full-price sales. The third quarter grew 8%, in line with the second quarter, despite lapping the exceptionally strong 18% comparison from the same period last year.
At the Prada Group Academy, the company’s School of Craft, from 2021 to 2024, they launched 29 courses, training 571 students — a sort of small brigade of excellence. This year, seven new programs kicked off, with 152 enrolments, a healthy 28 per cent compared to 2024. Is craftsmanship the new luxury flex?
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Those who enter the Academy embark on a journey of continuous learning, a permanent gym for both hands and mind. Yet some trades still remain underappreciated. “There are beautiful crafts that simply aren’t perceived as such,” Lorenzo Bertelli noted. The long-cultivated myth of the glamorous office job — shiny badge, ergonomic chair, the whole package — is now colliding with a less glossy truth: many white-collar roles are alarmingly easy to automate.
After a session in which Academy apprentices spoke about the perks and challenges of training to become the next generation of craftsmen, Bertelli and Guerra sat down to talk about the future of craftsmanship, the company’s evolving industrial model, and the opportunities ahead. Below is an edited part of this conversation.
Vogue: Lorenzo, let’s talk about the appeal of manual work. Young people don’t seem to consider the idea of working in manufacturing anymore. Everyone wants to go to Bocconi (the prestigious Italian University of Economics) and then go into consulting, but the reality often turns out to be quite different. How do you make craftsmanship attractive again?
Lorenzo Bertelli: I think it has a lot to do with the marketing of blue-collar jobs versus white-collar ones. When people picture office work, they imagine themselves living the Wolf of Wall Street fantasy. In reality, most of them end up drowning in spreadsheets and PowerPoints. And as technology advances, it’s increasingly replacing processes that, until yesterday, were the bread and butter of office workers. But one thing technology can’t replace is an artisan’s ability to work with their hands. We see it not only here in Scandicci but across the company.
Take Luna Rossa, for example: it needs welders, electricians, highly specialized technicians. What this technological shift is revealing is that many jobs once considered “high value”, like office roles or consulting, are proving surprisingly easy to automate. Meanwhile, the manual trades are gaining even more value. The problem is simply that no one is telling this story well. These are the jobs that will endure.
Today, there’s a shortage of skilled workers in countless sectors. Anyone who’s tried to renovate a house, like myself, knows the struggle: good carpenters, plumbers, builders, they’ve all become unicorns. Knowing how to work with your hands is a priceless skill, and we need to elevate it properly. After all, Made in Italy is built above all on manufacturing. We must make this world as attractive as possible by valuing it and creating the right conditions for it to thrive. It’s still early days, but I’m convinced that in the next 10 to 20 years, the paradigm between white-collar and blue-collar work will be completely flipped on its head.
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Vogue: Can you clarify what you mean by “paradigm shift”?
Bertelli: I remember that years ago, every other parent was sending their kids to learn coding because coding was “the future”. And now we’ve discovered that AI can code — and maybe you didn’t need all those coding classes after all. In today’s world, the real superpower is being agile and flexible. But there is one area I believe is both stable and built to last — and Italian history proves it: manufacturing.
Sure, iron rods today are made by CNC machines, whereas 50 years ago they were hammered out by a worker on an assembly line, in conditions that were, let’s say, less than thrilling. Since AI is going to eliminate a lot of low-value-added tasks — and by that I mean repetitive, monotonous, mind-numbing work — it will actually create more opportunities to elevate the professions where skilled hands make all the difference. That could be a chef, a pastry maker, an electrician or someone in manufacturing. So that’s what I mean by a paradigm shift: I see a world where, thanks to AI taking over the boring stuff, we can finally recognize the true worth of the people who work with their hands. They’ve always been there; we just weren’t appreciating them properly.
Vogue: How are you approaching technological evolution and the integration of AI into production processes?
Bertelli: I’m not worried, because the manual expertise of our Academy students, as I mentioned, will be our most precious asset. Let me share an anecdote: as you know, we’re working on the space suit for the upcoming Artemis III mission in collaboration with Axiom Space. When we went to Houston, Texas, we had all these images in mind — Nasa, space suits, unimaginable capabilities. And yet, the one thing they genuinely needed our help with was… sewing. They didn’t know how to stitch the suit’s patterns, which ones to use, or where to put them. Our contribution turned out to be essential.
And I believe that, increasingly, technology will allow us to gain enormous efficiency and eliminate even more of the low-value tasks from people’s daily work. Of course, there will be a transition period: some jobs will inevitably disappear, and in the short term, this shift will create friction and disruption. But in the long term, I’m convinced it will elevate human work even further, especially in manufacturing. I also believe the public and social sectors must do everything they can to ease this transition and make it as painless as possible.
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Vogue: The Made in Italy production process has recently come under scrutiny due to allegations of malpractice within the supply chain. How has your group approached this challenge, and what measures have you put in place over the years to minimize risks that some other fashion players are currently facing with their third-party suppliers?
Bertelli: Unlike much of the industry, in our group, the runway has always existed hand-in-hand with the factory. From day one, our approach has been that design and production are inseparable. When you talk to managers from other companies, factories can seem like a distant world, something abstract that doesn’t fall under their responsibility. That disconnect has contributed to many of the issues making headlines today. For us, it’s a matter of culture and heritage. From day one, my father believed in owning factories. My parents’ story embodies this approach: my mother, Miuccia, dedicated herself to design, while my father, Patrizio, focused on the factories.
This philosophy runs through our entire organization; it’s in our culture. In our Milan offices, business is never discussed without considering the factories, production processes, and their broader impact. Many companies simply don’t take this hands-on approach. Over the years, we’ve already confronted many of the challenges that are now creating problems elsewhere, not because we were inherently smarter, but because we tackled them early. At the time, some even questioned why we would take on such a labor-intensive, costly path when it would have been easier to outsource production and focus on higher margins. It’s an ongoing commitment. Regular inspections, supplier audits, and direct engagement with our factories are constant necessities. But in our experience, there’s no shortcut: understanding your production and being hands-on at every level is the only way to safeguard quality, ensure ethical practices, and maintain the integrity of the Made in Italy label. That’s been our approach from the very start.
Vogue: What does it take to safeguard ‘Made in Italy’ and let its story of excellence resonate with authenticity?
Andrea Guerra: We will remain incredibly strong when it comes to Made in Italy. Italy’s problem isn’t the “Made in”, nor our manufacturing, nor our ability to innovate. The real issue is selling our strong points, being able to tell a story, do marketing, engage consumers, and run stores all over the world. Italian companies have always been extraordinary at making things, but, unfortunately, not equally extraordinary at selling them.
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Companies like Prada, which decided more than 30 years ago to step directly into the world of end consumers, are the exception rather than the rule in Italy. I always use this example: if I ask a French or British entrepreneur, “Tell me about your business,” they’ll take me to one of their stores, their restaurants, or their hotels. If I ask an Italian entrepreneur the same question, they’ll take me to their warehouse. That’s the difference. In Italy, the tradition of running shops, restaurants, and hotels has always been rooted in family businesses, but we haven’t really taught the next generations — at least not enough, or maybe only recently — how to evolve in consumer management. Today, Italy likely produces around 80% of the world’s luxury goods, yet Italian companies are responsible for not even 20% of the sector’s revenue. That’s where we lost ground, and where we need to improve, treating this sector as a central pillar of Italian industry.
Vogue: Lorenzo, today you’re celebrating 25 years of this Academy, and next Tuesday, Versace officially joins your group. Will there be a Versace Academy?
Bertelli: It’s clear that Versace will now have the opportunity to fully step into our world of industrial production. This means not only accessing a more structured and sophisticated manufacturing ecosystem but also benefiting from processes, expertise, and capabilities that can elevate the brand’s craftsmanship and operational strength. Here in Scandicci, we’re already getting ready to welcome Versace. The Academy will remain a group initiative: after all, whether we make a bag for one brand or another, it’s still the same craft. The philosophy stays the same, and we’re continuing down this path.
From an investment standpoint, we’ve never hit pause. For example, in Milan, we’re expanding our work with high-end leather, creating an even more sophisticated workshop. Another major investment is a brand-new facility in Tuscany, near Piancastagnaio, for handbags. We’re building it from scratch to make it fully cutting-edge in terms of sustainability. This facility will also bring together a range of our local workers. Beyond that, we’re working on several other projects in the Marche region related to footwear and knitwear production. From 2019 through the end of 2024, we’ve invested over €200 million to strengthen our industrial infrastructure — and in 2025 alone, we’ve put in another €60 million.
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Vogue: How do you envision easing Versace into the Prada fold without dimming its famously bold glow?
Bertelli: First of all, we need to get to know the people, the team, and understand what evolutions may be needed. I see phase one for Versace as purely a learning phase. Only after that will we form opinions, gather perspectives, and decide how to move forward. But the absolute priority is meeting the people who actually make Versace run. Nothing more glamorous than that — for now. Acquiring Versace is an important step, but a calculated one. It doesn’t expose us to major disruptions, and it’s a risk we can easily afford to take. Which means we have the luxury of patience: doing things slowly, carefully, and being willing to try, try again… and then try once more.
Vogue: There are quite a few fashion brands out there that could use both a creative jolt and a financial reboot. The menu is long. So why choose Versace, putting €1.25 billion on the table?
Bertelli: Gianni was the man who made a traditionally bourgeois, ultra-elite sector suddenly pop. He brought aspiration into a world where aspiration didn’t even exist. In my view, it was a revolution comparable — dare I say — to what Michael Jackson did in music: he took something aspirational and made it wildly popular, glamorous, and culturally magnetic. Versace still has that fascination today. And importantly, it’s completely complementary to the other brands in our group — there’s no overlap in identity, no risk of one stepping on the other’s toes. It’s a universe of its own. That’s why it stood out in a sea of options.
