Prada Cleo Shoulder Bag

A 1990s shape, reissued

Prada describes the Cleo as a bag that 'reinterprets an iconic design of the brand from the 1990's.' It arrived at a moment when the house was mining its own past: it had already reissued the Re-Edition 2000, 2005 and 2006 bags and relaunched its nylon as Re-Nylon. The Cleo turned the same idea to leather, as a play on a popular Prada shape from the 1990s.

The bag was released in November 2020. Accounts name its debut differently: articles from 2020 and 2021 say it debuted in Prada's 'Multiple Views' show, while later articles say it first appeared during the Spring/Summer 2021 presentation billed as 'The Show That Never Happened.' Either way, it came out of the house's 2020 presentations, staged in a year when, in February, Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli had named Raf Simons co-creative director.

The launch line had two variations: an open-top shoulder bag, which also came in a larger size, and a smaller version with a flap. A Mini followed in July 2021.

From English trunks to brushed leather

Prada began in 1913 as Fratelli Prada, a Milan leather goods shop run by Mario Prada and his brother Martino, selling imported English steamer trunks, handbags and travel goods from a store in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. Mario's daughter Luisa ran the business for almost 20 years; her daughter Miuccia joined in 1970 and took over in 1978.

Miuccia Prada and her husband, Patrizio Bertelli, turned the company into a fashion house. In 1979 she released backpacks and totes in a tough black military-spec nylon her grandfather had used to cover steamer trunks, which became her first commercial hit. By the 1990s, the decade the Cleo looks back to, Prada was seen as a luxury brand known for original design.

The Cleo draws on that leather-goods past in its construction. Each bag is formed over custom lasts, a method one account traces to the beginning of Prada's work in leather, so the curved body keeps its shape. It is made in spazzolato, Prada's brushed calfskin, which Prada calls 'a modern and versatile material that is distinctive in Prada collections.'

The It-bag of 2022

At first the Cleo was easier to find online than on the street. A handbag editor wrote in March 2022 that she rarely saw it in New York or Miami, until fashion month that season, when the Cleo was 'arguably the bag' from New York to Milan to Paris.

Television helped. In season 2 of Emily in Paris, the title character carried a sunny yellow Cleo shoulder bag with a matching beret. A 2023 review said the Cleo had risen to It-bag status 'with a momentum reminiscent of the early days of the It-bag,' a favorite of street-style stars, editors and celebrities.

How to read a Cleo

The standard Cleo is a slim hobo: Prada lists it at 27 cm wide, 22 cm high and 6 cm deep, with a leather handle, metal hardware, a magnet closure, a Prada logo nylon lining with a patch pocket and an enameled metal triangle logo on the front. Its main material is calfskin. A 2020 description gave 10.6 x 8.7 x 2.4 inches.

The shape is the point. The base curves, with the back sitting a couple of inches lower than the front, and the sides slope softly so the bag hugs the body under the arm. The brushed finish gives the leather a slight sheen and makes it feel smooth rather than buttery. Even the metal hook that attaches the strap is engraved PRADA.

The trade-off is space. One owner gave it three stars for function: it holds a phone, a key pouch and a few small things, and the fixed shoulder strap cannot be lengthened for crossbody wear. Shoppers should tell the open-top Cleo from the smaller Cleo with a flap and from the Mini, which has a crossbody extension; resellers often call the open-top bag the Medium.

Prices

The Cleo's price climbed quickly. Sources disagree on the 2022 figure: one owner recalled that it retailed for $2,400 in January 2022, while a price tracker put it at $2,900 in 2022. Both agree it reached $3,100 after Prada's January 5, 2023 increase, which the tracker called a 7 percent rise. In October 2026 Prada's U.S. site listed the black brushed leather Cleo at $3,500.

On the resale market, a black spazzolato Cleo in excellent condition was offered by a U.S. reseller at $2,295 in October 2026, about a third below current retail.

Archive as strategy

The Cleo became one of Prada's defining bags of the 2020s by looking backward. Like the Re-Edition reissues around it, it took a 1990s Prada shape and rebuilt it for a new audience, and it has since been made in a run of colors and in several sizes.

In black brushed leather it is the most understated version of that idea: a curved, logo-light shoulder bag whose identity rests on the shape and the small enamel triangle at the front.

The numbers

Dimensions

27 cm wide x 22 cm high x 6 cm deep (maker's figures)

Material

Brushed (spazzolato) calfskin; Prada logo nylon lining

Hardware

Metal hardware; enameled metal triangle logo; magnet closure

Strap

Fixed leather shoulder handle

Product code

1BC499_ZO6_F0002 (black)

Family

Open-top Cleo (also made larger), Cleo with flap, Mini Cleo

Production quantity

Not published

Timeline

1. 1913

   Mario and Martino Prada open Fratelli Prada, a leather goods shop in Milan.

2. 1978

   Miuccia Prada takes over the family business.

3. 1979

   Miuccia Prada releases her first nylon backpacks and totes.

4. 1990s

   Prada makes the archival shape that later inspires the Cleo.

5. Feb 2020

   Raf Simons is named co-creative director of Prada alongside Miuccia Prada.

6. Nov 2020

   Prada releases the Cleo in brushed leather, in open-top and flap versions.

7. Jul 2021

   Prada releases the Mini Cleo.

8. Mar 2022

   The Cleo is widely called the bag of the Fall 2022 fashion month.

9. Jan 5, 2023

   Prada raises U.S. prices; the Cleo goes to $3,100.

10. Oct 2026

    Prada's U.S. site lists the black brushed leather Cleo at $3,500.

The world in 1913

• 1913

  Prada's first shop sells imported English steamer trunks and travel goods.

• 1977

  Miuccia Prada meets Patrizio Bertelli, who soon joins the company.

• 1983

  Prada opens a second boutique in Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II.

• Feb 23, 2020

  Prada's appointment of Raf Simons as co-creative director is reported.

• Nov 2020

  By the Cleo's launch, Prada has reissued its Re-Edition 2000, 2005 and 2006 bags and relaunched its nylon as Re-Nylon.

• Jan 5, 2023

  Prada raises U.S. handbag prices by about 3 to 8 percent.

Price record

This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.

By reference price, Prada Cleo Shoulder Bag is number 70 of 100 in the handbags entries of the FLOAT 100. 19 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (76 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Every Cleo is shaped over a custom last, so the curved body holds its form.
• The back of the Cleo sits a couple of inches lower than the front.
• Even the small hook that attaches the strap is engraved PRADA.
• Emily in Paris put a sunny yellow Cleo on screen in its second season.
• Prada's first big hit under Miuccia Prada was nylon, a material her grandfather had used to cover steamer trunks.
• Fashion editors called the Cleo the It-bag of 2022, more than a year after its release.