Giorgio Armani Privé Couture, spring 2021
Courtesy of Giorgio Armani Privé
MILAN — Alan Prada, the soon-to-be former editor in chief of Italy’s Harper’s Bazaar, has landed a new job.
Prada is joining Giorgio Armani SpA as the company’s deputy creative director of online and offline image, a new role. He is to start on April 1 and will report to Giorgio Armani.
Fashion brands are not new to recruiting media people for top creative positions. In 2018 Tod’s Group tapped Michele Lupi, formerly at Icon magazine, as its first men’s collections visionary, while Hermès recruited former Vanity Fair fashion director Michael Carl as vice president of press and influence.
Prada is joining the Italian luxury fashion house after a 15-plus-year career in fashion media. Hearst tapped him in 2019 to spearhead the launch of the Italian edition of Harper’s Bazaar, which debuted as a digital-only title. Original plans to roll out a printed edition in the second half of 2020 never materialized. He also served as the creative director at Esquire, another title under Hearst’s umbrella, which was launched in Italy in 2017 and soon thereafter he was named its editor in chief.
Alan Prada, Italy’s Harper’s Bazaar editor in chief. Henrik Blomqvist/Courtesy Photo.
Since November 2020, Prada’s role at Hearst Italy has been expanded as he was named the media company’s digital editorial director of global luxury and fashion brands, in particular overseeing the digital operations of Italian Elle.
Prada is staying on at Hearst Italy until the end of March and the media company has not named a successor yet. It is understood a search is underway and that Giacomo Moletto, chief executive officer of Hearst Italy and Western Europe, is taking his time to evaluate all possible candidates.
Prada started his career in fashion at Italian Elle in 2005 before moving on to L’Uomo Vogue in 2007, where he served as fashion features editor under the late Vogue Italia editor in chief Franca Sozzani. At Condé Nast, Prada was named deputy editor in chief at L’Uomo Vogue and at Vogue Italia, in 2014 and 2017, respectively.
