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Newsmaker of the Year: The Candidates

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The winner, selected by WWD editors, will be published Dec. 16.

MIUCCIA PRADA

TITLE: Lead designer

COMPANY: Prada

NEWS THIS YEAR: Even by her industry-leading standards, 2013 proved stellar, as Miuccia Prada delivered two of the most marveled-over and dissected collections of the year. In addition, she did what previously seemed near impossible — she helped to costume an unimaginably glamorous, high-profile period film — Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby” — using clothes from current and recent collections.

But then, that is part of Prada’s enduring brilliance. Over the years, she has made liberal use of historic references, sometimes to the degree that a dress — or 40 — can transfer into an idealized take on a time long gone. Yet her work remains consummately daring and modern in its shattering of conventions and, yes, in its proselytizing. Prada is first and foremost a fashion designer — she’ll correct someone in a heartbeat should they suggest otherwise. But her thought process swings intellectual and political, elements she streams into the body of work that often muses on women’s roles in society.  For More

The Prada Empire Matriarch.  Amazing woman!