MILAN — When American industrialist Peter Kern speaks of La Perla, he does not describe a fallen titan. Instead, he evokes a ghost. “It never tarnished,” he says. “It just quietly disappeared.” That spectral absence, he believes, left a void in the luxury lingerie market that he and his wife, Kirsten, are now determined to fill.
La Perla’s story is one of intricate craftsmanship and turbulent ownership. Founded in 1954 by Ada Masotti, a Bolognese corsetière who transformed the post-war silhouette with elasticized lace and precision boning, the brand became a benchmark for artisanal lingerie. Yet after the Masotti family sold to JH Partners in 2007, the brand passed through the hands of Silvio Scaglia (2013) and Tennor (2018), each iteration fraying its once-seamless reputation. By the time Kern acquired it through Luxury Holdings II LLC last year, the atelier’s famed seamstresses had been scattered.
Kern’s first act was to rehire them. “We wouldn’t have done it without them,” he insists, noting that production remains in Bologna, where the brand’s 70-year archive of patternmaking and lacework is stored. This commitment to Italian manufacturing is not merely sentimental. In an era of algorithm-driven fashion, Kern sees La Perla’s hand-finished silk and hand-cut lace as irreplaceable. “Robots may figure it out someday,” he muses, “but nobody can make lingerie like the women at La Perla.”
The revival begins in June with a new collection, previewed through an intimate Atelier Event at Harrods’ lingerie VIP Lounge. Artisans from Bologna will travel to London for private fittings, a format Kern believes is unprecedented in the category. “No other lingerie company can do a trunk show,” he notes, because few possess the bespoke infrastructure to adjust a bra’s underwire or recut a slip’s panel on demand.
Distribution will be deliberately restrained. Gone are the oversized flagships of the past; Kern envisions smaller, appointment-driven boutiques in Milan, Paris, and New York. “We’re not going to take a store just to have a store,” he says. Instead, the brand will lean into its Salon Privé concierge service and partnerships with the world’s top department stores. The goal is not mass scale, but a return to the intimate, one-to-one relationship that defined luxury lingerie before the era of fast fashion.
Kern is candid about the financials: a three-year plan to break even, with revenue ambitions exceeding La Perla’s peak of 250 million euros. But he is in no rush. “We’re not private equity,” he says. “We can do it the right way.” In an industry where heritage often unravels under corporate pressure, that patience may be the most luxurious thread of all.
Originally reported by WWD