Nylon bags from the 1970s, an opera coat from Miuccia Prada's first collection in 1988 and a prototype suit for a NASA moon mission are on show together in Milan. The exhibition, Pradasphere, is Prada's first permanent one. It fills the floor above the Marchesi 1824 pastry shop in the eight-storey Prada Galleria in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. Entry is free, but visitors must book in advance.

Prada Galleria opened to visitors on 23 September 2026. The show itself is not new. It ran in London and Hong Kong in 2014 and in Shanghai in 2023 before coming to Milan.

Three parts and a suit for the Moon

The brand's story began in the same arcade. Brothers Mario and Martino Prada founded Fratelli Prada in 1913. One source says they drew the upside-down triangle logo themselves.

The show has three parts. "Origins" displays the first trunks and travel goods of Fratelli Prada, along with drawings and photos. "Development" covers the Miuccia Prada era, with the nylon bags, minimalist ready-to-wear and the collections from the 1990s on. "Perspectives" covers the Prada Foundation, work with artists and architects, and projects such as the Luna Rossa sailing team. Items on show include the chocolate-brown coat from 1988, the Flame shoes from 2012 and a pleated evening bag with a devil's-head clasp from the spring-summer 2024 collection.

Sources differ on the number of rooms: one says eight, another nine.

The show ends with the suit for the Moon. Prada is developing it with Houston-based Axiom Space. It is a liquid-cooled, ventilated undergarment worn under the spacesuit, with thin tubes that carry cold water over the large muscle groups. It is made for spacewalks of up to eight hours near the Moon's south pole, and for the Artemis IV mission, whose landing is set for early 2028. Prada has contributed its know-how in 3D modelling, high-tech knitting and special fabrics. It is the first luxury brand to take a direct part in developing a spacesuit.

A velvet-lined underground passage beneath the arcade's octagon is also counted as part of the show. It links the men's and women's boutiques and holds a chandelier dress made for Baz Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby". Another source says the passage is technically not part of the main exhibition.

About €100m a year

Prada expects the show to bring in about €100m a year, says Lorenzo Bertelli, the group's marketing director. He says the figure could be exceeded. He calls the show a "multiplier", because visitors often spend more afterwards and sometimes come back to shop. The group reported sales of €5.7bn for 2025. Another source says the same €100m refers to the whole renovated complex, and the cost of the renovation has not been announced.

The exhibition is only part of the building. It also has an enlarged women's store, private rooms for selected clients and the Osservatorio of the Prada Foundation, which is devoted to visual experiments and research. Chief executive Andrea Guerra called the complex "the epicentre of epicentres" and said he expects to host friends and clients from around the world there. The press release for Pradasphere says: "For Prada, the past is never past, but an accumulation of ideas", tied to intuition, collaboration and intellectual exchange.

Twenty people an hour

Visitors book through a form on the Pradasphere page of the Prada website. A confirmation comes by email with a QR code, which is shown at the entrance. Each booking is for one hour. Twenty people are let in every hour, and one source says slots are full until the new year.

The exhibition is at Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, numbers 63 and 65. It is open from 10:00 to 20:00 every day. Another source says Sunday hours are slightly shorter and may change during events, and advises checking the brand's website.