Prada Re-Edition 2005

The nylon that made Prada

Before Prada was a fashion house it was a leather shop. Mario Prada opened his store in Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in 1913, selling bags, trunks and travel goods, and earned the title of official supplier to the Italian royal household. That is why the triangle logo on Prada bags still carries the words Milano and 1913.

Nylon arrived with his granddaughter. Miuccia Prada joined the family business in 1978 after earning a Ph.D. in political science, and she went looking for "the absolute opposite" of the bourgeois luxury she saw around her. Her answer was a tough industrial nylon, and her first hit in it was the Vela backpack. Accounts differ on the year: two magazines date the Vela to 1984 and a third to 1985. Nylon bags, she later said, cost more than leather ones because learning to work the fabric took three or four years.

In 2000 Prada introduced a nylon mini hobo, a baguette-shaped bag carried under the arm that became an everyday bag of the decade and appeared in many colors and special editions. As oversized bags took over in the late 2000s, the small nylon styles were discontinued.

2019: back from the archive, in recycled yarn

In 2019, as Y2K style came back, Prada reissued two of its nylon bags and named them for their original eras: the Re-Edition 2000 and the Re-Edition 2005. The 2005 is described as a reissue of a mid-2000s style, and one review traces it to the 2005 Bandoliera Tessuto. The reissues made small changes but kept the shapes.

The same year Prada launched Re-Nylon, a version of its signature fabric made from ECONYL, a regenerated nylon yarn produced by recycling and purifying plastic collected from oceans, fishing nets, landfills and textile waste. Prada says the yarn can be regenerated endlessly without loss of quality and that choosing it cuts global-warming impact by up to 90 percent compared with virgin nylon. The first Re-Nylon range was a tote, a shoulder bag, a belt bag and two backpacks; the Re-Edition bags moved into the material as well.

Prada designed the 2005 as a bag of parts: a short chain handle, a longer crossbody strap and a small coin pouch, all removable and interchangeable. Reviewers compared it with the multi-pochette bags then in fashion, a bag that can be worn three ways.

What is on the bag

Prada's current Re-Edition 2005 Re-Nylon bag (product code 1BH204) measures 22 cm wide, 18 cm high and 6 cm deep, large enough for a big phone and a small wallet. It has Saffiano leather trim, a removable chain handle, a detachable adjustable 85 cm woven nylon shoulder strap printed with the logo, and a removable Re-Nylon zip pouch with a Re-Edition key ring. It closes with a zipper, carries the enameled metal triangle logo on the front and is lined in Re-Nylon with a logo. The main material is recycled polyamide.

Prada asks owners not to wash it often, to air it after use and to have it dry-cleaned by an ecological specialist, to limit microfiber shedding.

Prada makes the bag in many colors; its U.S. site lists more than a dozen, from black and white to Aviation Blue, Burgundy and Camel. One owner has said the reissue was produced in two batches, one in Italy and one in China; Prada does not state this on its product page.

The most bought bag of 2022

The reissue landed with a generation that had grown up on photos of the 2000s. Bella Hadid, Kendall Jenner and Dua Lipa were early carriers, followed by Sofia Richie Grainge, Kaia Gerber and Rosalia. A U.S. resale company's 2022 report named the black nylon Re-Edition shoulder bag its most purchased bag of the year, with sales up 110 percent, ahead of the Fendi Baguette and the Dior Saddle. One magazine counted more than 32 million views on TikTok's Prada Re-Edition hashtag.

Its price climbed with its fame. A January 2020 review called it affordable for a multi-pochette-style bag and quoted two different retail figures, so the launch price is not settled here. In October 2026 Prada's U.S. site listed the Re-Edition 2005 Re-Nylon bag at $2,250.

A bag that came back on purpose

The Re-Edition 2005 is one of the clearest cases of a house mining its own archive for a new audience. Prada has kept issuing it in seasonal versions, including crystal-covered satin, pastel gingham, terry cloth and crochet, and in its recycled nylon it carries Prada's sustainability message.

For many buyers it is a first designer bag, and for some a hand-me-down: one fashion editor carries her mother's original Prada nylon hobo from the late 1990s or early 2000s, a reminder of how closely the reissue follows the bags it revived.

The numbers

Dimensions

22 cm wide x 18 cm high x 6 cm deep

Material

Re-Nylon (ECONYL regenerated nylon, recycled polyamide); Saffiano leather trim

Hardware

Metal hardware; removable chain handle; enameled metal triangle logo

Strap

Detachable adjustable 85 cm logo-print woven nylon strap

Extras

Removable Re-Nylon zip pouch with Re-Edition key ring

Production quantity

Not published; a standing production model in many colors

Timeline

1. 1913

   Mario Prada opens his shop in Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II.

2. 1978

   Miuccia Prada joins the family company.

3. 1984

   Prada's nylon Vela backpack debuts, by most accounts; one gives 1985.

4. 2000

   Prada introduces its nylon mini hobo.

5. 2005

   The Bandoliera Tessuto, the nylon shoulder bag the reissue is said to be based on, appears.

6. 2019

   Prada reissues its nylon bags as the Re-Edition 2000 and Re-Edition 2005 and launches Re-Nylon.

7. Jan 2020

   Early reviews compare the Re-Edition 2005 to the multi-pochette bags of the moment.

8. 2022

   The black Re-Edition shoulder bag is a U.S. reseller's most purchased bag of the year, sales up 110 percent.

9. Oct 2026

   Prada's U.S. site lists the Re-Edition 2005 Re-Nylon bag at $2,250.

The world in 2019

• Apr 15, 2019

  Fire destroys the roof and spire of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.

• Jun 15, 2019

  Hong Kong suspends its extradition bill, but protests continue for months.

• Jul 24, 2019

  Boris Johnson becomes prime minister of the United Kingdom.

• Sep 20, 2019

  About 6 million people join a global climate strike ahead of a UN climate summit.

• Nov 5, 2019

  11,000 scientists publish a warning that the planet faces a climate emergency.

• Dec 1, 2019

  The first known human case of COVID-19 is recorded in Wuhan, China.

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 Re-Edition 2005 is number 71 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 (78 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Miuccia Prada once said her early nylon bags cost more than leather ones because learning to work the fabric took three or four years.
• The Re-Nylon yarn is made partly from discarded fishing nets.
• The triangle logo on Prada bags carries the year 1913, when Mario Prada opened his shop.
• Before joining the family firm, Miuccia Prada earned a Ph.D. in political science.
• In 2022 a U.S. reseller sold more black Re-Edition shoulder bags than any other bag, beating the Fendi Baguette and the Dior Saddle.
• The bag can be carried by its chain, worn crossbody, or stripped down to its small pouch.