Even iconic products like Prada’s famous nylon bags need to advance to retain their original meaning, relevance, and status. Miuccia Prada is increasingly onboard with sustainability, giving up fur a month ago and now pledging to convert the “virgin nylon’ used in her famous bags to Econyl. a regenerated-nylon yarn that can be recycled an infinite number of times. The new fabric is made from reclaimed ocean plastics, fishing nets and textile fiber waste.

To kickstart the important sustainability effort, Prada will release a belt bag, a tote, duffle, two backpacks, and a shoulder style unisex capsule collection. The project is a collab with Aquafil, an Italian company with more than half a century of expertise in creating synthetic fibers.

A portion of revenues will be donated to UNESCO’s sustainability teaching programs.

When Prada first introduced the now-iconic nylon backpack to the luxury fashion sphere in 1984, it was “really an idea”. “I was searching,” Mrs Prada told Vogue in 2018, “because I hated all the bags that were around. They were so formal, so lady, so traditional, so classic.” British Vogue reminds us of the obvious, that Miuccia Prada’s greatest insight about luxury is that it’s an idea, not a product. Therefore, the product, as well as the brand position, must evolve.

Nobel winner, Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai has signed with United Talent Agency. Courtesy of UTA

21 years-old Pakistani activist and Oxford University student Malala Yousafzai and her father Ziauddin have signed with United Talent Agency’s new Culture and Leadership division. which reunites them with their former CAA (Creative Artists Agency) agent turned UTA division head Darnell Strom.

UTA head of Culture and Leadership division Darnell Strom.

Strom left his agent position at CAA in January to head the new division at UTA. Strom himself is an experienced speaker and moderator, taking the stage at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Sundance, Clinton Global Initiative, Brilliant Minds, Web Summit and the United Nations' Nexus Global Youth Summit.

The world came to know Malala Yousafzai in 2012 when the Nobel Peace Prize winner was shot in the head by a Taliban assassin, who boarded her school bus in Pakistan’s Swat Valley.

Malala survived and was airlifted to the United Kingdom, where she recovered in Birmingham, and continued her activist work with a strong emphasis on girls education. Together with her schoolteacher father, Ziauddin who was an equally strong proponent of girls education, perhaps the world’s most famous father-daughter activists team founded the Malala Fund. In 2014, at age 17, the astoundingly committed and articulate Malala became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Now 21, she is studying philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford.

Malala Yousafzai and her father Ziauddin Yousafzai via National Geographic Australia

"When I started my fight for girls at 11 years old, working with media and public speaking were key to building support for my efforts," said Malala, the subject of Davis Guggenheim's 2015 documentary ‘He Named Me Malala’ and author of ‘ I Am Malala’, ‘Malala's Magic Pencil’ and ‘We Are Displaced’. "I look forward to working with UTA to develop creative ways to amplify the voices of the next generation of girls and young women."

"To achieve gender equality, we need support from women and men, leaders in every sector. Darnell understands this, and I am excited to continue working with him at UTA," said Ziauddin Yousafzai, who serves alongside his daughter on the Malala Fund board. He wrote his autobiography, ‘Let Her Fly’, last year.

The father and daughter team were interviewed by National Geographic Australia in 2016, where the question was posed to Mr. Yousafzai: “What’s it like to be known as Malala’s dad?” Note dad’s use of the word ‘patriarchy’ in his response!

I think it happened to me in Swat before Malala was attacked. My friends in Swat, when they used to invite me to the podium, they used to say, “Now we invite Malala’s father.” So it was really something very inspiring. In a patriarchal society, men and women both, they are always known by their family, and I think I am one of those few—hardly any—who is known by his daughter. I’m very proud of it, and I’m thankful to God. I’m a blessed father to be known by my daughter.

On Thursday and Friday of this week, she spoke at The Art of Leadership for Women Conferences in Calgary and then Vancouver, Canada.

Malala isn’t current listed on the 10th annual Women in the World Summit in New York April 10-12, 2019.