La Perla workers are calling for new laws in Italy. One that protects them from financial speculation, according to the US industry magazine WWD. The tailors reportedly demonstrated in front of the European Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday. This is not the first time that La Perla workers have taken to the streets.
This time they wanted to “tell their story” to an Italian delegation of MPs with a request to “draft legislation that will no longer allow financial and economic speculation like the one they are currently experiencing,” said Ugo Cherubini, national secretary the Italian union Filctem Cgil, told WWD. In his opinion, Italy lacks a “serious industrial policy,” which gives speculators the opportunity to “explore the economic and production network of our country [Italien, Anm. d. Red.] to plunder and then to leave”.
Unions regret that German businessman Lars Windhorst, who owns the company through his London-based Tennor Holding BV, has not presented a plan to revive the brand after Windhorst’s company Tennor, then known as Sapinda, took over the company in 2018 had. The Italian lingerie brand was bought by the Dutch Sapinda Holding in February 2018. In May 2019, La Perla received a capital injection of 23 million euros. La Perla remained heavily in debt, while at the same time the owner invested $50 million (46 million euros) in the now defunct British couture house Ralph & Russo. Windhorst should invest 60 to 70 million euros in the relaunch of La Perla. The relaunch never happened.
Several proceedings are currently underway against Windhorst’s company, its British activities and La Perla. These are still ongoing in both Italy and the United Kingdom.
The unions want to protect “everything that is good in Italy”.
Cherubini stressed the urgency of the legislation, saying there was “no more time to waste.” He stressed that the brand is a symbol of “Made in Italy” production, which, however, is hindered by people who benefit from Italy’s poor infrastructure. Cherubini describes these people as “unscrupulous financial speculators.” “This should not be allowed. Not only the experienced tailors at La Perla pay the price for this, but all the good people in our country. We must defend our industry if we want to defend our companies and Made in Italy in the world.”
The demonstration in Brussels is not La Perla’s first protest. The Cgil, Filctem Cgil, Owl and Uiltec unions have spoken out on several fronts. The protesters want La Perla to be owned by entrepreneurs who “care about this brand.” Cherubini further told WWD: “We reject the fact that the only priorities of the English trustees are the loans from the London tax authorities.”
La Perla was founded in 1956 by corset maker Ada Masotti. Her son, Alberto Masotti, ran the company until it was sold to JH Partners in 2007. La Perla later passed to Silvio Scaglia in 2013, who sold it to Sapinda (now Tennor Holding BV) from entrepreneur Lars Windhorst in 2018. The underwear brand currently employs around 330 people in Italy, including 230 at the production site in Bologna. According to unions, they are not paid regularly.
This translated article previously appeared on FashionUnited.nl