chiara scaglia

Before becoming the Asia-Pacific chief executive of La Perla in 2014, Chiara Scaglia was CEO of the then-independent Chinese music label Gold Typhoon. Her Instagram account is peppered with raw, personal images of exotic destinations and out-takes from photocalls with La Perla’s campaign girls Liu Wen and Mariacarla Boscano. It all makes her out to be glamorous yet cool, a touch that she has brought to the Italian luxury lingerie house, where dad Silvio Scaglia is chairman.

chiara scaglia
Going beyond lingerie, accessories are a key part of the brand’s offerings.

Under her tenure, the 63-year-old brand has become a “full 360 fashion label” with accessories, menswear, couture and ready-to-wear, all sold at the brand’s boutique in Takashimaya D.S. Or – as she put it when she was here for the store’s opening in May – a brand with“something for everybody”.

chiara scaglia
Kendall Jenner wore a La Perla Couture gown to the Met Gala in May. It reportedly featured 85,000 hand-painted crystals and took over 160 hours to make.

Couture was launched this February and offers the likes of the sheer, crystal-swathed gown Kendall Jenner wore to the 2017 Met Gala, with every piece handmade in Bologna. For local customers, a tailor will measure you in store (an order takes six to eight weeks to complete).

chiara scaglia
Throw a jacket over La Perla’s Maison collection to go from night to day.

When asked to recommend a must-have, Scaglia promptly suggests a piece from Maison, the signature range that’s as big on sophisticated nightwear as it is on lingerie. “Women wear (the slips) as dresses because one’s fully covered.”

chiara scaglia
Comfort and cling: The corset jacket (a new bestseller) has a built-in bra where traditional boning is replaced with “anatomical stitching”.

The brand’s ready-to-wear is far from limited to lingerie-inspired styles though. The line, which makes up 20 to 30 per cent of every collection, includes essentials such as pants and knit dresses. All have stretch and are wrinkle-resistant, she says.

A F/W ’17 highlight? A corset jacket with a built-in bra and anatomical stitching. “It will accentuate a woman’s figure without constricting her,” says Scaglia. “What I really admire is how we’ve transformed our insider knowledge of lingerie and the female body (into ready-to-wear).”

Photography (Chiara Scaglia) Frenchescar Lim Art Direction Adeline Eng

This story first appeared in Female’s August 2017 issue.

Like this? Check out the most stylish people spotted at Dover Street Market Singapore, the 7 streetwear brands in Asia to know and Chiara Ferragni’s collaboration with Tod’s.