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Annalisa Schiavon breezes into the Sai Ying Pun cafe, greeting me with a very effusive “Ciao Bella!” and looking every bit the fashionista that she is, with what looks like several metres of fabric around her neck (one of her creations, it later transpires when she unravels it to show and tell me about it). She’s out of breath as she sits down behind a frothy cappuccino, greeting me like a long-lost friend. In fact, we’ve met just once, last year, at one of the Being Neighbourly functions, when she similarly breezed in, gracing us with her presence and gifting me one of her tea towels before zipping off again.
Her company La My Dragonfly, has been in existence since 2017 and was founded by Schiavon and an Italian friend, Lella Bernasconi, who has since left Hong Kong and returned to their native Italy.
The company started organically, after her friend asked for Schiavon help to jazz up a skirt. One thing led to another and, ta-da!, a range of one-size wrap-around reversible skirts was born.
It’s indicative of Schiavon can-do, buccaneering spirit.
These days, as a peruse through the La My Dragonfly website attests, the product range has extended and now includes: kimonos, towels, tea towels and the Keith McGregor Collection of towels and tea towels backed by Hong Kong photographs provided by McGregor and printed on cotton. Some of her products are packaged in bags made from the old sails of yachts and hand-cut by Schiavon, who learned to sew when young, “like all Italian girls of my generation”, she says.
La My Dragonfly items are stocked at the Mandarin Oriental hotel and have popped up for sale over the years at Schiavon preferred watering holes, in a win-win situation for La My Dragonfly and the designated venue. “La My Dragonfly?” I enquired. The company name derives from the first letter of each of Schiavon and her business partner’s names, for those who might be wondering; and the flying insect, which she told me they repeatedly encountered on their work trips.
“We were on the point of getting a shop at PMQ. We’d gone through all of the rounds of introducing ourselves and the brand and they offered us a shop. But then, Covid hit so we said no,” Schiavon shares, explaining how this decision paved the road for the pop-up route, which, has been successful.
Schiavon studied economics and finance in her native Italy and was led to fashion through her mother tongue, which was essential in working with Valentino, her biggest client, for whom she still works in product development and quality control today.
When Schiavon is travelling for work, she may spend five weeks away before returning to
Italy; and when in Italy, she may be asked to travel domestically to Rome or Milan, but can otherwise reside at her parents’ place in Padova, where her brother and his family are neighbours.
Schiavon mentions the importance of family to her several times during our chat.
Work also takes Schiavon elsewhere. For beading, Schiavon travels to Mumbai, and, Valentino aside, she also takes on small clients, which, with La My Dragonfly factored in, fills her schedule.
‘It’s a kind of dream job,” I venture, reeling off the travel aspect, working with people from different cultures and the anchorage of her biggest client to Italy, where her birth family and other relatives reside.
This year, Schiavon will be focusing on new directions. With her business partner now returned to Italy, running La My Dragonfly is different, she admits, and creating time and space to create new products is essential to move forwards with the brand, she adds.
What’s the best work advice you have received?
I always make it a point to listen to people who have more knowledge than I do and to try to learn as much as I can from them.
One woman in product development at Prada taught me a lot about how to look at a finished garment. She always said that the garment should ‘speak’ to you. In the beginning, I didn’t understand but having worked with her for a few years, I have learned a lot about how a luxury product should speak to you — not just in terms of quality but whether it gives you a feeling of harmony or not.
If I were going to give advice, it would be to keep your ears open and listen carefully before walking into any new venture.
Annalisa Schiavon
Founder,
La My Dragonfly
- +852 9832 2630
Call to arrange an appointment at the Sheung Wan showroom.
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