La Perla’s high-grade lingerie is poised for a makeover at the hands of Pedro Lourenço, who was just announced as the label’s new creative director. Given control of the brand’s lingerie, sleepwear, beachwear, loungewear, menswear, and accessory lines, Lourenço will have the opportunity to lead the iconic intimates house, founded in 1954 by Ada Masotti, in a new direction—although he’s not tossing out the baby with the bathwater just yet.
“Ada Masotti was a real revolutionary woman, and she was the first to actually merge function and technologic innovation with femininity, so that’s something we’re going to work on a lot in the collection,” Lourenço told Vogue.com over the phone. Though he demurred when asked what his Fall 2016 collection would bring, he offered, “What I can really say is that there is a lot of exploration about the relation of garments and the body and the evolution of the brand.”
As for his plans to expand La Perla’s already-immense lexicon of lingerie, he discussed an expanded focus on loungewear for women and some clever new takes on embellishment. “I like polished embellishment, embellishment you construct not to only decorate, but it becomes functional, too,” he offered, noting that La Perla has a history of creating beautiful pieces that are not only showstopping, but also comfortable. “We are concerned with every detail—every seam is important to us, every embroidery that we do . . . there is a very couture aspect to everything.”
As a male designer, men’s intimates are also on Lourenço’s mind. “I’m a customer who’s always looking for nice pieces, but I never find something that is innovative but still classic. We really want to focus on re-creating the classics but with a modern silhouette,” he said.
Since joining the company, the designer has spent a fair share of time in the La Perla archives, exploring ways that the house’s history connects to his own sensibilities. On a basic level, the relation is somewhat obvious—La Perla is grounded in a superior knowledge of the body, a concept Lourenço has explored in his namesake line for the past decade. Still, the designer admits that taking on a role in the intimates business has only grown his knowledge of construction and fit. “Starting at La Perla has been such a learning opportunity,” he began. “At La Perla, we’re always talking about comfort and finding solutions. Lingerie is something that connects directly to the body, so when we want to propose something that’s more external, we already have all this background and all these levels of understanding that are really amazing.” See how this all plays out during the brand’s Fall 2016 show at Milan Fashion Week.