Pedro Lourenço Named La Perla Creative Director

Brazilian designer Pedro Lourenço has been tapped as the new creative director of La Perla for the fall/winter 2016 season, with his first collection to debut at Fall/Winter ’16 Milan Fashion Week. He’ll helm design for the brand’s lingerie, sleepwear, beachwear, loungewear, accessories, menswear, and Atelier collection.

Lourenço showed his first RTW collection in Paris in 2010, when he was just 19 years old, to rave reviews—including from former French Vogue editrix Carine Roitfeld, Vogue Japan’s Anna Dello Russo, and The Telegraph’s Hilary Alexander—and he quickly gained industry cred for his contemporary and clean designs. He was born into fashion; his parents are Brazilian designers Reinaldo Lourenço and Gloria Coelho, and he worked at both of their studios, tackling his own collection for his mother’s Carlota Joakina line at 12 years old for São Paulo Fashion Week in 2002. He then held positions at Lanvin and Giambattista Valli before launchimg his namesake brand.

“I have always admired La Perla,” said Lourenço in a statement. “I am fascinated by the early days of the brand: a small atelier focusing on corsetry made to the highest standards and designed to enhance the beauty of women. The founder, Ada Masotti, a visionary woman, was aware of the fact that fashion was constantly being revolutionized and lingerie had to change with it. In her universe, modernity walked hand-in-hand with femininity and functionality did not preclude creativity. She changed the way the world thinks of lingerie. I am amazed by the philosophy she created and I want to bring it back today.”

“The sartorial excellence and sensibility for the female body combined with a quest for innovation are pillars of La Perla and match the skills and talent of this young designer,” said La Perla chairman Silvio Scaglia in a statement, adding that under Lourenço, the brand plans to continue to blur the boundaries between lingerie, beachwear, and outerwear, focusing on “sensuality, elegance and preciousness.”