MILAN — British designer Paul Surridge is joining Prada, WWD has learned.
Working with co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons and interfacing with Luigi Preziotti, Prada design director, sources say he will be focused on the menswear category. Surridge is therefore reuniting with Simons, as he reported to the Belgian designer when he was design director of men’s at Jil Sander. Simons was creative director of Jil Sander in the 2005 to 2012 period. It is also a return for Surridge at Prada, as early on in his career he was an assistant of Neil Barrett when he was a menswear designer at the Milan-based fashion house.
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Surridge left his role as creative director of Roberto Cavalli in 2019, after a two-year stint at the brand, and went on to design capsule collections for Corneliani for two seasons, starting in May 2022.
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Reflecting his experience with fabrics and textures, Surridge was tapped by Corneliani for the Circle collection introduced with the spring 2020 season, reinforcing the brand’s commitment to a more sustainable model and its increasing targeting of the new generation of environmentally conscious consumers.
A graduate of London’s Central Saint Martins, Surridge honed his skills at Calvin Klein and Burberry, working with Christopher Bailey from 2003 to 2007.
He was creative director of Z Zegna from 2011 to 2014. His curriculum also includes a stint as creative consultant at Acne Studios in Stockholm, with responsibility for coordination of the menswear collections.
Surridge is the latest designer to join Prada, following the arrival of Clémande Burgevin Blachman as design director of jewelry, bijoux, textiles and home collections.
Burgevin Blachman was previously Hermès creative director of fashion accessories. Over the years, she has designed a wide range of accessories, from handbags and furniture to interior design.
Before joining Hermès in 2022, Burgevin Blachman was vice president of design at Calvin Klein Home and a creative consultant at Alaïa in Paris.
The daughter of antique dealers, Burgevin Blachman has had an unconventional fashion career, starting off at Chanel doing art direction and copywriting, later joining an advertising agency whose clients included Galeries Lafayette and Petit Bateau, and operating a vintage jewelry boutique in Paris, according to a source familiar with her career.
Prada did not comment on either appointment.
As reported, Prada Group is in exclusive due diligence with Capri Holdings about potentially buying Jimmy Choo and Versace. Earlier this month, the group reported another year of growth, with sales rising 15 percent to 5.43 billion euros and net profit climbing 25 percent to 839 million euros. Prada Group retail sales amounted to 4.85 billion euros, up 16 percent compared with 4.2 billion euros in 2023, driven by like-for-like, full-price volumes.
Retail sales of the Prada brand were up 4 percent at constant exchange rates in 2024 to 3.56 billion euros, sustained by all categories and by a consistent like-for-like growth trajectory supported by a well-balanced category mix.