La Perla keen to tap craftsmanship skills in recovery effort

A La Perla spokesperson, member of the current management team, defined it as “a day of celebration, and a great gratification for our staff, our workers, and all our people. Today, we are here for them.” La Perla made its presence felt at the recent Milan Fashion Week with a presentation staged at Palazzo Giureconsulti, a way for the long-established Italian luxury lingerie label to show that it still exists and is back in business, relying on its long-standing Bologna factory. On display at the presentation, 10 vintage looks, and two outfits made in recent weeks by La Perla’s artisans.

“In recent years, La Perla’s corporate structure has become very complex and fragmented,” said the spokesperson. “In 2017, under the previous owners, Scaglia, the company moved its headquarters from their long-established Bologna base to London. The move was prompted by tax reasons, as Scaglia used to reside in London. Under the subsequent owners, Tennor (currently being liquidated), the London office took on more staff, shifting the label’s centre of gravity away from its Bologna roots.

The production company, La Perla Manufacturing, did remain active in Bologna, with a facility that employs 200 workers, and a key core group of about 80 people, the most skilled artisans, working on product development and the manufacturing of the [label’s] highest-quality items. This is why, in Milan, we wanted to exhibit garments made in Bologna, to show that these are products requiring months of development, made with extremely sophisticated techniques, and materials that are almost always exclusively selected for us. Because we don’t buy the same materials others buy.”

Production restarted on September 2, with a small group of 20 workers, which grew to 30 the following week, “while our commercial director, who is currently working remotely from Milan, is receiving many orders,” said the spokesperson, recalling La Perla’s troubled last twelve months.
 
“In November-December 2023, some of our companies began to default, while production was ongoing,” she explained. “[The] London [company] was the first to go, and others were then hit by a domino effect. But after a nine-month struggle, during which we continued to work, even without pay, we’re beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel, having gone into administration.” The administration procedure is clearly aimed at keeping the company alive. It is a way of safeguarding the workforce while waiting for a committed buyer, with the public administrators acting as guarantors in the joint sale of the manufacturing assets and trademark. “We are convinced that the next owners will be real entrepreneurs, and will take care not only of [the La Perla] business, but of its people too,” said the spokesperson.
 
Retail-wise, La Perla still operates a concession at Milanese department store Rinascente – a concession owned by La Perla Italia, another of the group’s companies – which has now been re-stocked. It is the only directly operated La Perla store, and was never closed. Another concession is active at Rinascente in Rome, but it isn’t directly operated. Elsewhere, La Perla still has a directly-owned store in Dubai, through a company owned by the London parent company. There is also a small retail network in Asia, and a myriad wholesale clients, “which despite our best efforts we haven’t managed to supply on a continuous basis, but we’re starting to work with them again,” said the spokesperson.

She noted that there have been several expressions of interest in the company, “which we’re presenting as active, with its production lines operational, and with the stated, undeviating goal of keeping commercial and manufacturing operations in Bologna. The next steps in the procedure will be the sale negotiations undertaken by the administrators.”
 
London-based La Perla Global Management UK is no longer an active company and is being liquidated, a procedure handled by Quantuma, so the label is effectively restarting from Bologna. The employees of two other Bologna-based companies linked to La Perla are also waiting to learn their fate. They are La Perla Global Management’s Italian branch, a logistics and services subsidiary, and La Perla Italia, which used to run the label’s Italian stores and the Bologna outlet store (currently closed, but it may re-open). For both of them, the goal is being included in the administration procedure.