The story

Prada began in 1913, when Mario Prada and his brother opened a shop in Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II selling leather goods, trunks and fine accessories. It was his granddaughter, Miuccia Prada, who took the helm in 1978 and turned a respected Milanese leather house into one of the most influential fashion voices of the past half century.

Under Miuccia, Prada made intelligence fashionable. Her black nylon bags of the 1980s proved that an industrial fabric could be as desirable as fine leather, and her collections have questioned taste, beauty and uniform ever since. The house rarely shouts; it makes you look twice.

The codes

The enamelled triangle plaque is the house signature, used with a light hand. Beyond it, Prada's codes are about method: clean washes in place of heavy distressing, uniform and workwear shapes thoughtfully reconsidered, and finishing so tidy that it becomes the point.

The denim

Prada denim looks deceptively plain until you notice the precision. Five-pocket jeans and workwear cuts arrive in even rinse and mid-blue washes, with considered hardware and seams finished inside and out. A single signature detail, often the triangle, is all the decoration it needs.

Why it's on jeans.com

Prada jeans reward the kind of dresser who notices proportion, fabric and finish before logos. We include them because they are the clearest proof in our edit that restraint can be the most sophisticated statement of all.