La Perla: Luxury In The Making
February 21, 2015 by admin
Filed under Choosing Lingerie
In many cases, we asked the models to choose which
garments they wanted to wear
director
THE last year has been a metamorphic one for
luxury lingerie label La Perla. A new Atelier collection – shown at
Couture Fashion Week – that took no less than 14 months to make was
unveiled; and it has chosen London as the location for its
global flagship (on Old Bond Street), which launches tonight. This
is very much a brand pushing forward.
“London is perfect for us, it is where our Italian heritage and
a global view on what luxury is come together,” global marketing
director Nick Tacchi told us. “La Perla garments have always been
designed for, and interpreted by, very different women in their own
unique ways and where else can you find such multi-faceted
femininity?”
What better way to make his point than to look back at the
label’s past campaigns, as seen in the recently released Rizzoli
tome, entitled La Perla: Lingerie and
Desire, charting the brand’s illustrious trajectory
through the decades since its inception in 1954. From the
high-waisted suspenders of the Sixties to the high-wattage
negligees of the Eighties, La Perla’s campaign archive defines each
generation in which it has thrived. To this day, the brand
is uncompromising that its campaigns should remain relevant
for its contemporary customer, and has adopted a novel approach to
achieve this honesty.
Choosing the right models who express femininity and
elegance in their most varied forms is our most important
aim
“Choosing the right models who express femininity and
elegance in their most varied forms is our most important aim and
selecting the garments is key to ensure that every model feels at
ease and in harmony with the pieces worn during the photo shoot,”
explained Tacchi. “In many cases, we asked the models to choose
which garments they wanted to wear for our campaigns. For us, La
Perla is elegance, sensuality and femininity, and these
characteristics are even more credible when expressed naturally and
harmoniously.”
The sentiment is one that was first put in place
by founder Ada Masotti, who started the now
internationally-respected company in the comfort of her kitchen in
Bologna, with two sewing machines and a lot of ambition.
These were before the days of elastic, and so she
meticulously covered rubber threads in fabric by hand to ensure
that each piece flawlessly followed the female form. Masotti
was passionate about imparting what she called “il mestiere di
creare bellezza” (meaning “the art of creating beauty”) to the
designers that worked for her – a spirit that is as present in the
current in-house design team as it was 60 years ago.
“For La Perla it was all about fully leveraging the
craftsmanship and the fine knowledge of modelling on the female
body, which is an integral part of any garment we make,” a
spokesperson for the team, who work as a collective, told us.
“Choosing fabrics and techniques that represent sophisticated
sensuality; thinking about the main concepts that are at the heart
of the La Perla style philosophy; working with an evolutive vision;
and launching not only new interpretations of the La Perla cult
pieces but also innovative ideas as to how to wear them, were the
major points to consider when designing the Atelier
collection.”
Ada Masotti would be proud.
La Perla’s global flagship is situated at 9 Old Bond Street,
London.
