Monse (Q3431)
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Monse is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Monse |
Monse is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
Back in September, at the Monse spring 2025 show, there were blinked-and-you-missed-them bags shaped like footballs. For pre-fall, Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia continued the story, bringing back a print from their third collection eight years ago that cleverly mixed a vintage-looking illustration of football players in action with a floral. “We loved it, but we didn’t really push it that much that season,” Kim explained. “Personally I love this print, because it’s a little masculine and feminine, like our brand.” That same masculine/feminine energy was reflected in their use of it: on breezy silk scarf slip dresses, and more cleverly printed over boxy men’s striped button-downs. “I can actually order this,” said Garcia.Elsewhere, the duo offered softer versions of their signature deconstructed tailoring, and their two-for-one pieces included a trench coat with a built-in draped crochet blanket and elastic waist trousers with appliquéd “jeans” on the front. Matching twinset knits also hid a surprise, the sweaters draped over the shoulders were not in fact sweaters or cardigans but flat pieces made to be draped over the shoulders—without the added bulk of volume or buttons. Rounding out the collection were scarf going-out tops (millennials will remember these well), to which the designers added a bustier underneath for added support. “This is a more sophisticated, going-out top,” Kim added.
12 December 2024
Late last month, Michelle Obama wore a look from Monse’s most recent precollection to deliver a speech at the Democratic National Convention. That viral moment is likely the reason why designers Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia were in an American state of mind. It was evident even before the first look hit the runway; one only needed to notice the alternating red, white, and blue chairs. “This collection is an ode to America, because New York City is probably the only city that could have allowed us to open a company,” explained Kim during a preshow interview. The show opened with a khaki version of the same jacket Obama wore, but layered over a gathered and pleated white cotton shirtdress.In keeping with the America theme, football was also an inspiration. Models carried leather bags made to look exactly like, well, footballs, and there were also more collegiate classics like rugby striped polo shirts and a heathered gray hoodie. The latter was fused together with a khaki trench coat, with some parts appearing to be layered underneath the coat whole and others as if they were layered over it. It was one of the best pieces in the collection. It seems like only a matter of time before Taylor Swift is spotted carrying the football bag or wearing one of the poppy and preppy takes on sporty dressing.Contrasting those moments was a series of sequined separates and gowns. “Fernando loves shine; I’m a matte girl,” Kim explained. A beige long-sleeve polo-neck shirt embroidered with tiny sequins, worn with a matching baby blue skirt, seemed like the exact point where the two designers’ points of views met; a little bit fantasy but always grounded. The final dresses and separates were made from thick bands of fabric woven together to create refreshingly low-key evening looks.
7 September 2024
There are two stories running through Monse’s resort collection. The first half alluded to the “vacation” aspect of resort collections. This one was inspired by Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia’s travels to a villa in Tuscany, plus “1970s horse posters, and this painting from the 1800s of a sunset in Antarctica.” They fed those images into an AI to create ombré color palettes, and perhaps more excitingly, ombré color palettes made up of prints—look closely and you can see a horse or a tree hidden on a silk button-down shirt and a matching handkerchief hem with a thick leather waistband; or a lonely iceberg floating at the bottom of a sheer skirt the color of an orange sky. A classic khaki trench with crochet panels in shades of green, yellow, orange, and red was one of the highlights of the collection—inspired by their favored ombré technique but interpreted differently.The second half of the collection was all about getting back to business. “Since COVID, we’ve been staying away from tailoring a little bit because people stopped buying suit jackets, but we began getting back into it last fall,” García said. “That’s how we started our brand; they were our bread and butter.” The designers love to play with unexpected collar placements on their jackets: wrapping them across the chest on an elongated vest, left extra long and only half-attached in the manner of secretary blouse ties on a gray jacket, or having one side of the collar jut out at an angle on a double-breasted wool herringbone jacket. Elsewhere, there were other hybrid pieces, like a three-in-one knit twinset or a coat built to look like a classic navy peacoat layered over a quilted gray blanket.
17 June 2024
Monse’s Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia were back on the runway after taking a break, showing at the International Building at Rockefeller Center, which was completed in 1935. They were already working on their fall collection, exploring the world of UFO’s and AI technology, when the opportunity to show at the space came up. “We definitely always want to make sure that there’s something that feels familiar to the customer and we twist it around,” said Garcia backstage after the show. “This is such a historic building and then we made it new by putting aliens in it,” added Kim.A series of pastoral jacquard prints that drew inspiration from classic tapestries like The Unicorn Rests in a Garden was interrupted by the presence of an unidentified flying object. It looked modern on a simple zip-up bomber jacket worn with a matching miniskirt underneath, and took on a camouflage appearance on a pair of slouchy trousers. The pair continued their experimentations with deconstructing tailoring, with straitjacket-inspired blazers, and tops that seemed to be made from trouser patterns turned on their side. A floor-length coat with a pleated and draped lapel to create the illusion of two layers was one of their most successful pieces, as was a simple A-line shift dresse with a buckle detail at the chest that they made in wool and denim. Their alien inspiration brought them to ’50s pulp novels, which they used as a print on a series of jersey dresses and T-shirts. Their coolest use of the print came on a simple lightweight gray twinset where they printed it on both the sweater and the cardigan that went over it.
12 February 2024
Monse’s Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia outfit the working woman and the party animal. Deconstructed tailoring has been their calling card since the beginning of the label in 2015. The past couple seasons, mesh panels, corsets, mini hemlines, cutouts, and leather have played prominent roles, sexing up the pant suits. It makes sense: Selena Gomez, Doja Cat, and Rosé from Blackpink are fans of the brand. But there are more executives than professional musicians.“We have some things still for our kpop girl, but transitioning back to our working customer, a lot more tailoring,” Garcia said of the resort 2024 collection at a showroom appointment. Kim laughed, and pulled out a dark floral evening dress with translucent sleeves and a cutout at the waist. “This is our working girl outfit,” she said. It’s all about balance.A sense of humor—which Garcia and Kim value—also manifests in the prints. This season, it’s a Dutch Old Masters inspired floral with bones worked throughout. A memento mori in a silk dress. It’s subtle in the soft wovens, but there’s a knit sweater and dress that place the skeleton front and center, accessorized with 3D flowers. (Perhaps Phoebe Bridgers, the high priestess of fashionable bones, will be their next celebrity client).While there’s only one true, classic pantsuit in slate gray in the collection, there are plenty of appealing blazers, vests, and coats, as well as a cape. Their youthful customers will be happy to see pleated mini skirts and a super structured leather mini dress with a cupcake skirt. They also brought back a pair of trousers with a corseted, sheer waist that has become a Monse best-seller.
3 November 2023
Looking at Monse’s fall 2023 collection, it would seem that reports of “quiet luxury’s” fashion takeover have been greatly exaggerated. Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia’s latest offering is made to be seen, looked at, and photographed. There’s nothing quiet about it. The designers’ muses include K-pop stars from Aespa and fromis_9, and friends in the short-lived showBling Empire. They aren’t looking for logos, but they’re not exactly going for beige sweaters and slacks either. These are going out clothes.The Monse signatures are out in full force this season. Reworked tailoring comes in teensy boleros and pinstriped, partially see-through mini dresses. There are corset tops, naturally, but also corset pants, shorts, and dresses—boning as far as the eye can see. Leather belts and buckles give everything they touch a bit of edge. One of the most compelling and on-brand ensembles is a lipstick red leather skirt suit loaded with hardware. It feels like the spiritual sister of the bubblegum pink cargo-pant and crop top that comes later in the lookbook. For all the slashes and leather and grommets, the effect is still pulled together and polished. One could say, camera ready.
18 July 2023
Hot air balloons were Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia’s inspiration for resort 2023—particularly their colorful stripes and rope fastenings. The references don’t hit you over the head in the look book, which focuses more on the house’s signature remixed tailoring, knitwear, and slinky dresses, but there are some sweaters in the full collection that feature these contraptions. The most interesting manifestation is a silky button-down top with salmon stripes and a net-like detail over the top. Compare it to a drawing of early hot air balloon flights and it’s almost uncanny, though it’s unlikely anybody on the street would guess.The aforementioned tailoring takes a few forms this season. Notably, many of the oxford shirts and shirt dresses have buttons down the sleeves to allow for various styling options. A pair of slacks feature a double waist-band: one that does the actual job of holding the garment to your body with elastic, one with a button. Just the thing for anyone who is still holding on to the comfort that work-from-home wardrobes allowed.
1 November 2022
Just before models started down the Monse runway on the water in Battery Park the news broke that Queen Elizabeth II had died. You could see the attendees’ shocked faces and overhear them telling their neighbors. I say this not because it’s relevant to the clothes that Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim presented, but because it would feel odd not to acknowledge the world historic event that happened during the collection’s presentation. For the assembled crowd the answer to the question “where were you when you heard Queen Elizabeth died?” will be, “at a Monse show.”But back to the matter at hand. The price of admission to the show was a donation (minimum $50) to City Harvest, a food rescue organization that prevents food from New York City’s restaurants from going to waste. The food theme only continued into two of the garments in the collection: a banana sweater and one with a misshapen radish—proceeds from sales of the latter will go to City Harvest.The main story of the collection was the sheer petticoats and corsetry. Garcia and Kim are also the creative directors of Oscar de la Renta, and have until now tried to keep Monse’s sporty insouciance separate from Oscar’s feminine opulence. This season, they blended the two. The natural way to do it was by embracing proportions that you’d see in an Oscar de la Renta collection, but descontructing them in a Monse-ian way. “The undergarments of Oscar became the garments of Monse,” Garcia said. An instant classic: an ankle-length sheer full skirt (with an elasticized waist) paired with short shorts, Teva-style sandals, and a trench coat with slits down the sleeves. “The trench coat is made to be worn with a petticoat. You can wear it without, but it’ll cover the big volume of the skirt,” Kim explained, a bonus for customers who shop both of their labels. These big, see-through skirts were a natural evolution, and a fittingly dramatic garment to present at the top of New York Fashion Week.
8 September 2022
Deconstruction has always been a guiding force for Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim at Monse. The first look of their first runway show was a mini dress that mimicked a men’s shirt wrapped around the shoulders—a harbinger of things to come. “There’s always that element of undressing,” Garcia says. Fall 2022 adds a new layer to that conceal-and-reveal concept. The key print in the collection is inspired by wheatpaste posters in Paris that were ripped, revealing all the layers of advertisements past underneath. The individual elements of this print—a mishmash of tapestries and ornate florals—also call to mind old aristocratic decor.In fact, Tudor England also influenced this season, which is evident in the corsets. Done up in sheer black mesh and jersey, it all feels youthful, with a little punk undercurrent. Some of the dresses and sweaters have potential cutouts that can be exposed or closed via hook-and-eye closures. A dress with a red houndstooth skirt and a leather bodice is separated at the empire-waist by such hooks; the wearer can choose how much or how little they want to reveal. Similarly, the moto jackets have sleeves that can be unzipped to show a little shoulder, or a sliver of sweater.The most classically Monse item is the closing black dress, which features a triangle of a beige corset. Complete with laces up the front and at the shoulder, it stops short of being fussy. Maybe because the ties end in metal aglets like shoelaces, it looks glamorous, yet relaxed.
5 August 2022
The pandemic has shaped Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim’s approach to designing for Monse: more knitwear and athletic gear, fewer reworked suits and tailoring. Pre-fall gives hints, though, that the pendulum may be swinging back. There’s a healthy mix of all their signatures, old and new.Let’s start on the exuberant end. A knit tangerine dress with one full length sleeve and a racerback neckline says “I’m heading to the beach” loud and clear. It’s also available in a rainbow stripe. A pink nylon jumpsuit evokes the visual language of athleticism without actually being something you’d lift weights in, and that’s a win for many fashion plates. (The same could be said for the sports bras in the collection.)The most compelling pieces aren’t the traditional summery clothes, but rather the ones that feel a little bit more dangerous. Leather straps feature throughout the collection: as midriff floss on low-rise trousers, across the open back of a white oxford shirt, and as straps on a bustier. Pleats counter this harshness; they’re especially effective on an empire-waist dress with a black rock ‘n’ roll leather bustier and a full skirt, and on a typically Monse-ian blazer, which has become a uniform for those who like their clothing sliced and diced.
11 May 2022
Designers Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim have been experimenting with a see-now-buy-now model for Monse: shoot the lookbook early, show it to buyers, and it’s ready to shop in stores when the collection images are released to the public. “By the time the images are out, it doesn’t become jaded, and the look of it is ready to be purchased,” Garcia explained. The spring 2022 images were captured in October 2021, just a few weeks after their resort 2022 runway show in September. Fans of that collection will be pleasantly surprised to see the sporty motifs continue through here.The ’90s and ’00s revivals are currently inescapable, but Monse’s double-waisted cargo pants—especially the orange pair printed with a collage of abstract botanicals—feel like a fresh addition. Styled with both bikini tops and bra tops, they were inspired by a photo of Jennifer Aniston circa her Brad Pitt days. They mesh well with the other key throughline of the collection: athleisure. They introduced cutout sports bras for pre-fall 2021, but the offering has expanded to include logoed leggings, long-sleeve crop tops, and a black dress inspired by the bra. (Some of these are available at Equinox).You can always count on Kim and Garcia to add in a playful detail, and this time around it came courtesy of a collaboration with artist Lan Truong. The pink and blue sweaters with a trompe l’oeil black bikini top and two knits depicting an egg and avocado on toast are both adaptations of Truong’s designs.It’s all as sporty as Monse has ever been, but it wasn’t without some formality; see the long shorts adorned with copper sequins, or a wedding guest-ready dress in the same print as the cargo pants. Even at this end of the spectrum, it’s all about ease.
10 February 2022
We’re only two days into fashion month—officially, at least—but a reverence for nature is already New York’s prevailing theme. Monse’s Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim wanted to celebrate the ways the great outdoors got us through the pandemic, and resort 2022 was their most functional and sportif collection yet. Crispy nylon cargos ballooned to the ankle, topcoats were trimmed with neon climbing ropes, and every look—including Indira Scott’s lacy finale dress—was styled with rubber-soled combat boots. They became an even more crucial accessory in light of today’s weather and setting: Pier 62’s undulating skatepark, slicked with a nonstop drizzle.Before the show, Garcia and Kim spoke of escape in both literal and figurative terms: They’ve spent weekends in the Adirondacks, upstate New York, and Lake Tahoe, but the mushroom prints on a trio of scarf dresses suggested a different kind of trip. Zoom in and you’ll notice the silks feature other oddities: alarm clocks, chunky TVs, old-timey radios, and a multitude of plants—the various obsessions and burdens of Zoom-fatigued homebodies.Garcia and Kim have leaned into themes in the past, and today’s invitation came with the possibility of a skate-inspired collection. In fact, the atmosphere’s influence on the garments was loose, coming through mainly in their function and ease. There were no Vans or beanies here, but rainbow-hued crochet skirts and trench coats had the subtlest of stoner vibes. A more high-minded brand might have felt conspicuous in the grimy setting, but this was an honest, unpretentious return to the runway for Monse, with options for those of us looking for interesting hoodies and sensual evening dresses alike.
9 September 2021
A photo taken on the set of the new Gossip Girl series went viral last year, in part for its feeling of déjà vu. The scene was ripped from the original GG circa 2007: hot teens lounging on the steps of the Met, sipping coffee, trading gossip. But it also looked extremely 2021, with a more diverse cast and of-the-moment styling—knee-high boots, cycling shorts, chunky loafers—replacing the headbands and platform pumps of yore.The image caught the attention of Monse’s Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia, who have remixed prep school icons in the past. But the Gossip Girl frenzy—coupled with a general post-pandemic urge for experimentation—pushed them to go bolder for fall 2021. Giant sweaters emblazoned with crests and symbols come with chewed-up, fraying edges; pleated skirts look like they’ve been unevenly shortened at home, a nod to Kim’s own habit of chopping up her high school uniforms; skirts have the trompe l’oeil effect of a blazer being wrapped around the waist; and tough leather jackets and leggings have sporty, adjustable white lacing up the sides.It was a tough, punk-ish departure for Monse, mirroring the edgier Gen Z style of the show; in fact, eagle-eyed Gossip Girl viewers will spot many of these clothes on-screen. A few months ago, Kim and Garcia sent the samples to the show’s stylist, Eric Daman, and were happy to report he pulled several looks for the HBO Max series. The collaborative spirit coalesced on Wednesday in a joint event at the One Hotel in Brooklyn, kicking off with a Monse runway show and followed by the premiere of GG’s pilot. (The runway was also live-streamed in Times Square, if you happened to be in the area.)Designers often cite movies or TV shows as inspiration, but it’s rarely a two-way conversation like this, nor with this sort of immediacy: The collection is available for pre-order on Monse’s website, shipping in the next two weeks. Wednesday’s event was just one glimpse of the collection, a moment in time like any runway show. But for Garcia and Kim, every Gossip Girl episode will be another opportunity to introduce Monse to people around the world. It’s a compelling model for our post-pandemic, digital-first era, where brands are in constant competition for page views and shoppers’ microscopic attention spans. GG fans who aspire to Julian’s look won’t need to scour the Internet or wait six months; they’ll go straight to Monse.
9 July 2021
Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim have spent most of the pandemic in New York. As the co–creative directors of two extremely NYC labels, Monse and Oscar de la Renta, skipping town to work remotely wasn’t exactly an option. But after a year of lockdowns, they’re feeling more hopeful about their city than ever. You can glimpse their New York pride—and wear it—in the standout print of their new pre-fall collection. Against white silk, an illustrated scrapbook of New York iconography features yellow cabs, bicycles, subway signs, and the Empire State Building. With new TV shows likeGossip GirlandAnd Just Like That...(theSex and the Cityreboot) filming this spring, it’s easy to see the asymmetrical, NYC-printed slip ending up on a cast member.The illustrations also appeared on a skirt and spliced button-down and became patches on the collection’s more utilitarian pieces, like a khaki twill romper. Garcia and Kim haven’t ordered a single roll of fabric since the pandemic began; instead, they’re working their way through their stock of denim, twill, silk, wool, and poplin. Being resourceful and concise in 2020 has paid off; while wholesale remains in flux, the duo reported a big spike in direct sales on their e-commerce site.The rompers, cargo jackets, and miniskirts with exaggerated pockets here are familiar Monse-isms; ditto the knit sets in nautical stripes and a camel trench spliced with plaid. (It’s fair to expect a bit more experimentation in their return to the runway in September.) Cutout sports bras with “Monse” stamped across the crisscrossing elastic bands were an athleisure-y surprise, but Garcia and Kim believe there’s about to be a post-pandemic dress-up moment too. Their slip dresses and evening gowns looked uncomplicated and sultry. Women angling for a smooth transition to going-out clothes might style them with trousers and boots, as they’re shown in the look book, or they’ll pick up one of the new sweaterdresses. A rust-and-emerald version in a techy, sculpting merino yarn seemed prim at first but turned to reveal a deep scooped-out back.
14 May 2021
It’s been a year since fashion felt the initial blows of the pandemic. With orders canceled, production stalled, and revenues depleted, it forced designers to adopt a new kind of resourcefulness, both creatively and financially. Many chose to repurpose leftover materials or samples to save cash, a decision that was happily repackaged as a sustainable one (Waste less! Use what exists!). But Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim didn’t gloss things over. “It was literally the only option we had,” Kim said with a laugh. “We would have ordered new fabric like we do every season, but our CEO told us that just wasn’t an option.” It wasn’t that Monse was on its last dollar, but the future felt too uncertain to be anything other than modest.The results are a tighter, leaner, sportier spring 2021 collection dropping today. Monse superfans will recognize the graphic polka-dot cotton on the opening look, a romper with extended cargo pockets and a quarter-zip neckline. The polka dots were later spliced into a handkerchief-hem camel trench coat, a Monse hero piece. Garcia and Kim had rolls and rolls of that camel, plus tons of army green cotton, striped shirting, denim, and navy wool suiting; the challenge was to rework their core fabrics into silhouettes both novel and wearable. Their twist on a white T-shirt—asymmetrical, sleeveless, with an exaggerated grosgrain bow at the shoulder—will speak to the women vowing to dress boldly (but comfortably!) as they “reemerge” this summer. The strappy slip dresses—styled with chunky sneakers, not heels—would strike a similar balance. For evening they trimmed a jet blazer with tulle and paired it with cycling shorts and flat boots.In a traditional season Garcia and Kim would have shown all of this to editors and buyers back in September. By the time the collection arrived in stores, certain items may have been tweaked or cut entirely if there weren’t enough orders. Spring marks the first time they worked semi-backward; buyers saw the line in September, and their feedback informed how Garcia and Kim shot the look book and how they’ll market the collection to customers. It isn’t exactly “see now, buy now,” but it equipped them with the data and insight they needed to create a successful—and less wasteful—collection. In a tumultuous year, trying to force the “old model” to work the same way it always did would seem the less sensible choice.
Another benefit for Monse? High-street brands haven’t had the luxury of ripping off those tulle jackets and trenches for six months. The copycat conversation is less prevalent these days, but it’s still a headache for young labels, especially as fast fashion grows bigger, stronger, and, somehow, even faster.
13 February 2021
Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim are in the unique position of experiencing this moment from two very different perspectives. As co-creative directors of Oscar de la Renta, they have the established infrastructure and cachet of a heritage label with a global footprint (and anAmazon Luxury Storesdeal), while Monse is still more or less a start-up compelled to be creative with its resources. Instead of rushing to complete their resort 2021 collection this summer, they chose to release the images closer to the in-store dates and took advantage of the extra cushion of time to change how they ship their fabrics and samples. Kim explained that on the normal “fashion calendar,” it’s impossible to ship by boat—the most environmentally-friendly option—because it simply takes too long. But for resort, she found it freeing to electively wait a few more weeks, and in the meantime, she and Garcia used whatever deadstock fabrics they had in their studio.There were excesses of raw denim and khaki twill, which happen to be Monse’s best-selling fabrics (used for jeans, trench coats, khaki pants, and the like). They collaged them into jackets, trousers, and asymmetrical skirts, in the Frankenstein’d spirit that’s become Monse’s signature. The opening look resembled a trench coat and a jean jacket cleaved in half and pieced back together, with exploding cuffs and an oversized belt. In such pragmatic, sturdy materials, it felt like a statement piece for shaky times—though Garcia and Kim said they’ve seen an uptick in interest for Monse’s fancier items, too.Adding their burnished-gold sequined gown to a virtual shopping cart without a single wedding or gala on the 2020 calendar might just be the new “fantasy shopping.” Those who can’t justify taking the plunge on a sparkly dress might be drawn to the simpler columns in black or cognac crepe. And for others not ready to abandon serious comfort after six months of sweatpants, there’s side-slit plaid trousers and a twisted blouse—a high-low, dressy-but-not mix, styled with thick-soled Both sneakers.
15 September 2020
Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim described their fall 2020 collection as “happy punk.” The models stomped out on clunky boots and wore safety-pinned suits, floor-scraping tartan skirts, and fishnet tights, with scowls that could only be described as angsty. Their tangled hair and chokers helped complete the impression. But the inspiration behind it all was, in fact, very happy:Fantastic Mr. Fox, the 2009 Wes Anderson film Garcia and Kim stumbled upon earlier this year.“We realized he kind of looks like a Monse fox,” Kim said with a laugh, referring to main character Mr. Fox’s thrifty patchwork suits. It got them thinking about menswear tweeds, plaids, and wools, all familiar territory for Monse, as well as rougher-looking recycled furs and downy mohair. As always, everything got the Monse slice-and-dice treatment, with a few new experiments that felt genuinely new.The opening look was a variation on the trench, likely one of Monse’s best-sellers. The dropped shoulders and built-in tartan blazer captured the hodgepodge style of Mr. Fox, but wasn’t really the strongest example of the duo’s 2020 vision. Later on, James Turlington—nephew of Christy, with a similarly refined bone structure—walked out in leather trousers and a faux ocelot “stole” tossed over his shoulder. An asymmetrical leather motorcycle jacket paneled with charcoal wool followed; outerwear was strong on the guys’ side. For women it was the tailoring—particularly the handkerchief-hem blazers—and decidedly unpretty looks that were most memorable. A navy blazer with deep pleats of evergreen tartan spilling down the side had evening potential but also looked like something a New Yorker might wear with jeans.Beyond those item-driven looks, the big question was, of course, why is this tough, rebellious spirit resurfacing in fashion in the first place. Is it the culmination of women’s mounting anger and frustration? In such bleak times, wearing a diaphanous dress and heels can feel tone-deaf if not maddening. Maybe it comes down to the cyclical nature of trends and the enduring fascination with all things ’90s; many of these outfits could be described as vaguely grungy. It’s also hard to ignore the influence of Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen on fashion as a whole; she’s brought northern English tailoring, craft, heavy boots, and unprecious dresses to the forefront of what feels relevant today.
Whatever the underlying motivation—conscious or subconscious—it was a surprising pivot for Monse, and hopefully not an arbitrary one.
7 February 2020
There’s always a tongue-in-cheek detail to discover in a Monse collection, from last season’s “seed packet” embroidery patches to the “Monse LLC” shipping label prints of resort 2019. Finding those details usually requires taking a closer look: One of those resort dresses was printed with vintage stamps that had been cleverly reworked with the brand’s phone number. But prefall 2020’s dominant motif was impossible to miss: Two oversize knits came with a hand-stitchedMonselogo underneath a very recognizable, bow-tie-wearing bunny. The concept of robe dressing got designers Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia thinking about Hugh Hefner’s iconic style, which inevitably led to a collaboration withPlayboy. Photos of Hefner in the ’70s were tacked to their mood board alongside crystal bunny logos, scraps of silk, vintage travel postcards, and a still fromThe Grand Budapest Hotel. ThePlayboycollaboration only accounted for a few pieces, so the rest of the collection nodded more generally to the idea of luxe leisurewear.On that note, the robe-like wrap dresses and blazers were a softer, more sensual counter to the boxy, ultra-oversize jackets Monse has become known for. Garcia explained that they tried to rein in their proportions this season and keep things feeling a bit lighter. That was most impressive in their deconstructed blazers, which had the same trompe l’oeil touches and handwork as ever, but felt a bit more wearable. A gray checked jacket looked as if a panel of wool had been ripped off one side, with the “interior” peeking out from frayed edges; the effect was similar in the back, with nearly a yard of wool hanging down like a train. If that sounds like a lot, the narrower construction of the jacket kept it feeling polished, not costume-y.Garcia and Kim’s boldest experiments came in the form of tailoring spliced with tulle, a fabric they use often in their Oscar de la Renta collections, but never for Monse. The sleeveless, asymmetrical wool and tulle trench was a rare example of their two worlds colliding, though it’s unlikely an ODLR customer would wear it. They’re hoping the tailoring-obsessed Monse girl will want it as a lighter, breezier option for summer.
4 December 2019
Sports jerseys, dogs, sailing, Victorian board games—those are just a few of the themes Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim have filtered through their Monse lens. Spring 2020 added farming to their grab bag of ideas. Kim’s sister built a scarecrow to replace the usual mannequin in their studio, and there were turned-over crates revealing rope sandals and fraying straw hats by Gigi Burris. If some of the label’s past themes have felt arbitrary, there was a concrete starting point here, which was the setting of their lookbook shoot: Yoga Vida’s new retreat center at a regenerative organic farm in upstate New York. It prompted Garcia and Kim to give their signature deconstruction an earthier touch: “scarf dresses” came in nubby striped cottons to mimic dish towels, and a few items came with built-in aprons or tool belts, including one stamped with “Fresh Oranges, Product of Monse, Spring 2020.” More charming were the knits and jackets with “seed packet” embroideries or patches made in collaboration with the California company Renee’s Garden.Mixed in with those cheeky details were Monse’s signature scarf prints, this time with blown-up fruits, veggies, and gardening tools (in case you ever wanted a rake on your dress!). Silhouette-wise, the designers’ usual slicing-and-dicing techniques produced some compelling new shapes: Blouses came with slits at the shoulder blades; jersey T-shirts had a single drape across the sleeve; wrap sweaters revealed panels of embroidery resembling pages from a gardening journal.It’s possibly a blessing and a curse that this lineup is debuting amid conversations about health and wellness and the major talking point for Spring 2020: sustainability. Given the collection’s natural roots, you’d half-expect Garcia and Kim to focus more heavily on organic and recycled materials. Kim reported that their factories in Italy have gotten more serious about sustainability in the past year or so, but it’s hardly a central theme in Monse’s story. Now five years old, Monse is no longer in its infancy; to maintain its relevance and keep pushing boundaries in the next decade, it will be necessary to make sustainability a recurring theme.
7 September 2019
You can count on Monse’s Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia to surprise you with their references. From shipping labels (Resort 2019) to cycling jerseys (Fall 2019) to their own pets (Pre-Fall 2019), it seems nothing is off the table; the common denominator is that their themes are usually sort of an accident. The same was true for Resort 2020: Their boss at Oscar de la Renta, Alex Bolen, gave them a book of Victorian board games to spark some ideas for ODLR, but Kim took it to Monse’s downtown studio instead, having a hunch that it would be better suited to the younger label.In addition to the old-timey look and feel of the games, she was fascinated by the odd items she found in many of them: surrealist hands, miniature soldiers, eyes, insects, and other knickknacks. She and Garcia aren’t afraid of being quite literal with their Monse designs, so in addition to the usual fare—playing cards, dice, jacks—those symbols were integrated into prints, knit intarsias, and, more surprisingly, trompe l’oeil tattoos on a sheer bodysuit.If a deck-of-cards blouse and skirt looked a bit too literal—or conjured flashbacks ofAlice in Wonderland—that bodysuit felt fresh in its going-for-it strangeness. (Look closer, and you’ll notice the heart and spade “tattoos” were sequined, and the Victorian “lover’s eye” had embroidered pearls around the edges, like a real brooch.) A few long-sleeved printed mesh tops had a similar look with a bit more coverage, and felt vaguely reminiscent of Jean Paul Gaultier’s cult tattoo shirts from the ’90s, which are enjoying a bit of a comeback.The body-conscious fit of those tops was arguably the real takeaway here. Kim and Garcia slimmed down their proportions across the board, trading their usual boxy blazers and wide-leg trousers for hip-hugging midi skirts, ruched silk dresses, and narrower tailoring. (Girls who are still into that sized-way-up look should consider the pieced-together unisex suits, shown here on men.) It was easy to spot the best sellers: Top of the list was a body-skimming navy dress with contrast stitching, a cut-out at the shoulder, and a floaty handkerchief hem. It was simple, yet made a statement—exhibited by the number of women in the crowd wearing similar versions from Monse collections past.
31 May 2019
Button-downs, blazers, cable knits, sports jerseys—those are just a few of the items that have gone under Monse’s knife. Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim deconstruct and reassemble logo T-shirts, dad jeans, and sequined gowns, too, but the bossy jackets and shirting remain their best experiments. Their Fall collection had several good-looking new suits, but the big surprise was their outdoorsy bent. A classic-looking brown tweed jacket came with a built-in nylon hoodie and patchworked trousers; another more sculptural blazer was layered over a funnel-neck zip-up, like something you’d get at R.E.I.Considering their busy day jobs—designing four Monse collections per year on top of ready-to-wear, bridal, and kid’s lines at Oscar de la Renta—it’s safe to assume Garcia and Kim aren’t going off the grid for a hiking trip anytime soon. Who has the time? We’re all eager to get outside and reconnect with nature, but most of us haven’t had a chance to actually squeeze R&R into our schedule. Those vaguely rugged clothes registered as almost aspirational as a result.Of course, cargo pants, functional parkas, and hardy buckles and straps have been trending on the men’s and women’s runways for a few seasons now. The fact that they appeal to both genders may be the key to the trend’s longevity: Garcia said he knew they’d hit their stride when the buffalo-check hoodies and leather-trimmed anoraks looked equally cool on their male and female fit models.Those anoraks were among the more novel, investment-worthy items; ditto the oversize shearling with a diamond jacquard pattern that mimicked a classic Patagonia fleece. Garcia’s favorite piece made a subtler statement: a short-sleeved performance jersey top with a drawstring cinching the waist, an asymmetrical hem, and a slit at the neck. It was inspired by a cycling shirt one of his colleagues wore to the office and will make a clever alternative to a T-shirt or button-down. Garcia and Kim didn’t style it with bike shorts (phew!) but with flared jersey trousers with sporty decals on the sides. The winning mix of comfort and graphic lines could make them an unexpected hit.
11 February 2019
Long before they designed their Pre-Fall collection for Monse, Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia knew they needed dogs in the lookbook. Back in January, they began a partnership with six animal shelters in New York to help promote fostering and adopting rescue dogs. A line of dog sweaters and accessories was the logical next step—all proceeds will benefit the shelters—and the project is launching this week in tandem with Pre-Fall. The lookbook functions as something of a PSA: Each photo includes a dog in need of a home (with the exception of Louise, Monse’s office dog and unofficial mascot, who makes a few cameos). Even the models they cast are dog lovers: McKenna Hellam, Cat McNeil, and Lameka Fox all own rescue dogs and support local shelters. They look visibly cheered by the presence of Labrador puppies and Chihuahuas on set.The timing of the project dovetails nicely with the holidays, and it’s joined by a special Disney collaboration. Pluto is hidden in a few prints, and Mickey appears on a striped button-down and a silky T-shirt. (Proceeds from those Disney pieces will benefit the shelters, too; they’ll be available immediately on Monse’s new e-commerce site.) As for the “regular” clothes, the dog theme got Garcia and Kim thinking about bandanas, which were blown up into asymmetrical, densely embroidered skirts and hearty trousers. They introduced Monse’s first lace, too: a cut-out tennis ball motif, a rather literal nod to your pup’s favorite toy. Another eyelet lace featured a dog that looked curiously like Louise. Dog leashes crossed over into the human collection, too, in the form of a bucket bag made of woven leashes and a silk blouse with a trompe l’oeil buckle printed on the neck ties. In shades of orange and brown, those graphic leash prints felt like a clever, tongue-in-cheek spin on the classic equestrian motif you’d find on an Hermès scarf.Beyond the dog references, the rest of the collection was business as usual—i.e., business-y items slashed and reworked in typical Monse fashion. Maybe it was the good vibes of their charitable project, but Garcia and Kim pushed their Frankensteinian signatures in a way that yielded their most convincing results yet. A snug, razor-sharp blazer was designed to twist gently around the body and had unfinished edges so it looked like a work in progress.
They sliced and draped a plaid blazer into a skirt—it looked a lot easier than its complicated beginnings—and the aforementioned bandana pieces appeared elegant, not campy. All to say, even a cat lover will find something to like here.
6 December 2018
Paris Hilton and Nicki Minaj were just two of the #monsegirls repping the brand at today’s show. But the first model on designers Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia’s runway was actually a Monse guy. He had messy hair and wore a loose V-neck Marinière sweater—a relatively genderless piece, for what it’s worth—with a few strings of pearls stitched into the hem. The traditionally “girly” touch nodded ever so slightly to the softer, more romantic way guys are dressing now, further emphasized by the model’s short shorts, high socks, and sandals.On one hand, maybe it was only a matter of time before Garcia just wanted to make clothes he could wear, too. He’s a fashion-obsessed guy who’s designed 21 women’s collections for Monse and Oscar de la Renta in the past three years alone. But this wasn’t menswear, per se. Backstage, he and Kim explained how their male friends have already been wearing Monse’s women’s pieces—many of them inspired by menswear in the first place—so they decided to make a dozen or so bona fide unisex items. The fact that their clothes tend to be oversize or deconstructed with extra-long sleeves likely made the process a little easier, but they also nixed the sequins and Swarovski crystals of seasons past, zeroing in on cool jackets, T-shirts, and knits that can go both ways instead.Going back to the opening look, the pearls touched on one of the designers’ loose reference points: granny style. The frayed tweed jackets and cardigans were designed in that spirit, too. Elsewhere, it was a bit of a grab bag: There were long, chain-printed silk gowns that slid gently off the shoulder like giant scarves; a few rainbow-striped pieces, like a vibrant poncho (worn by a guy) and a grosgrain ribbon skirt-short hybrid (styled on a girl); and twists on the classic pieces we associate with American style, like polos with off-center buttons. There was also a denim jacket that seemed to twist away from the body, and a handkerchief dress modeled after a rugby shirt. (That retro piece is making a comeback in the streetwear world, but Koché’s Christelle Kocher put her own, more compelling stamp on it last year.)A nautical theme was happening, too: lots of Marinière stripes, brass buttons, canvas bags, and slinky dresses with knotted rope straps. Garcia and Kim explored similar tropes in their Pre-Fall 2018 collection for Oscar de la Renta, though it made a little more sense for that label’s tony clientele.
(Monse’s young fans probably aren’t learning to sail, nor are they aspiring to join a country club.) A “themed” collection is a bit of an old-school concept these days—particularly for a three-year-old brand—and it feels pretty surface-level. Introducing guys on the runway was an energizing departure for Garcia and Kim, but beyond their m.o. of tweaking and elevating wardrobe staples, it would be nice to see them dig a little deeper and put a more meaningful message behind their work, too.
8 September 2018
A lot of designers talk about packing their Resort collections for a tropical getaway. Monse’s Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim took a different tack: They shot their collection in their company’s shipping facilities, surrounded by a tower of cardboard boxes plastered with “Fragile” and “Monse LLC” stickers. It was a tongue-in-cheek way to address Resort, which will be packed into similar boxes and delivered in November. The pack-and-ship concept trickled up into the clothes, too: Hardy overalls, trench coats, and cargo pants came in varying shades of khaki, so they looked vaguely like taped-up boxes. It got the duo thinking more broadly about construction in general. One pair of ivory jeans came with a built-in tool belt, and cotton T-shirts were screen-printed with Monse’s new slogan: “Monse LLC, Your Wardrobe Builders.”Those tees will be an affordable entry point for Monse fans, though we’re hoping the body-skimming T-shirt dresses spliced with satin will be easy on our wallets, too; they were minimal and elegant in a way that felt new for Monse. Kim’s favorite piece was a lot more casual: a hoodie covered in slogans and faux postage stamps, cleverly done in plush cream terrycloth. She’s planning to wear it over a swimsuit, which is as Resort-y as it gets; perhaps she’s got Monse bikinis on the brain, too.
7 June 2018
If Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim are rethinking the runway show, you can bet other designers will follow. Just a couple of weeks ago, Monse had a prime spot on the New York Fashion Week calendar—then, Garcia and Kim changed their minds. They produced a film with their longtime muse, Erin Wasson, instead. Shot by Fabien Constant at Coney Island, it’s a fantasia of carnival lights, carousels, and balloons that features a poignant voice-over by Nicki Minaj. The idea comes at a time when designers aren’t just reassessing the cost and impact of a runway, but are also responsible for creating their own fresh, exciting content in between those Fashion Week spectaculars. The film will live on Monse’s website, and you’re likely to see clips of it on their Instagram (and Wasson’s) in lieu of static photos.The clothes themselves didn’t necessarily demand a runway, either. And that was intentional. Garcia said their Pre-Fall and Resort collections perform so well, they wanted to keep up a similar momentum for Fall 2018—which is to say, the clothes hewed more casual and salable, with less eveningwear. The lookbook they shot with Wasson is even in the same style as those pre-collection books: a little bit raw, with an unfurling white seamless in the background.The trompe l’oeil blazers, blouse-skirt hybrids, and twisted satin dresses will be familiar to Monse fans; they’re signatures at this point, if less experimental than what we’ve seen on the runway. (Those experiments haven’t always worked, either.) Fall still had new developments, though: Monse’s first bags—a leather “lunch sack” and a velvet-striped tote—and what appeared to be an old newspaper print. Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t made up of columns, but vintage fashion patterns. Garcia and Kim lifted the pages directly from a German pattern book, incorporating Monse logos throughout the text and graphics. The results were more charming than a newspaper print would have been (and other designers got to that trend last season, anyway).The pattern book also tied in their loose inspiration: the ’50s, a time of strict gender roles when many women were still relegated to cooking, cleaning, raising their kids, and, yes, sewing clothes. Garcia said they wanted to poke fun at that era in light of the women’s rights controversies we’re experiencing 68 years later. Fashion has implored designers to make a political statement this season, but some women might take issue with the less-than-serious tone.
It led them to vintage “International Monse” factory prints and a “Monsefield” flour company motif, too—fake logos, if you will. Spring’s logo’d basketball jerseys weren’t well-received because they felt arbitrary, but these were a clever improvement.Monse fans want a touch of irony in their clothes, which also begs the question of why Garcia and Kim added ultra-luxe furs to this lineup. Faux-mink chubbies and vegan leather may have felt more in line with their youthful, classic-with-a-twist vision.
14 February 2018
Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim are going to sell a lot of sweaters next June. Their Pre-Fall collection for Monse had an armful of asymmetrical color-blocked knits in slouchy silhouettes, which looked as comfy as your favorite pullover, but with a graphic touch. Kim pointed out that the half-and-half effect of a navy and cream turtleneck looks particularly slimming in photos; unlike a plain sweater, this one gives you angles. That speaks to one of the duo’s biggest strengths, which is toeing the line between bold statements and practicality. Garcia said that Monse’s top retailer is a major e-commerce site; not only do their clothes look good on a computer screen, but the relaxed, often-oversize silhouettes make it easy to click “add to cart” without questioning the fit.Those sweaters were styled in typical Monse fashion: with sequined houndstooth skirts, satin slips, and vampy slit dresses, for a spontaneous, high-low effect. A few looks had touches of the varsity vibes from Monse’s Spring ’18 show, like a knitted logoed “donut,” which Garcia wiggled over a model’s shoulders so it looked connected to her shirt. Sold by itself, that scarf-slash-styling piece will be an affordable entry for the label’s young fans.Alongside the inherently casual knits, “dad jeans,” and blown-up gingham separates was a full rack of dresses that were unapologetically evening-geared. The best ones (e.g., the ones you’re most likely to see on celebrities) might just remind you of the designers’ very first collection: two uncontrived pajama frocks that twisted gently around the body, one in ivory and the other in burgundy. A third dress had a little more swagger going on: in loose cherry-red satin, it wilted way lower in the back with a sexy cut-out at the shoulder blades.
7 December 2017
Monsewas back on its own runway tonight after a joint show with Oscar de la Renta last season. Creative directors Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim, who launched Monse two years ago and took the helm at Oscar last fall, chose a sleek (and still-under-construction) new development in Hudson Yards for their younger label’s show; on Monday, they’ll present Oscar farther uptown at Sotheby’s. You can read a lot into those locations: The tony auction house is familiar territory for Oscar’s Upper East Side clientele, while Hudson Yards is considered to be the “new New York.” With Monse, Garcia and Kim are also among the new class of New York designers—the ones leading the conversation and pushing boundaries.Maybe that’s where they got the idea for tonight’s show, which was inspired by collegiate wear and sports uniforms. Garcia said he wears an old pair of basketball shorts from his alma mater, Notre Dame, so much that they’re “disintegrating”—so he and Kim slashed their skirts with tangles of fringe, and one LBD looked like it’d been dipped in acid and was starting to decay. Elsewhere, the co-ed vibes were more straightforward: preppy cardigans, khakis, track pants. Garcia said they wanted to give those classic items a “Monse twist”—but it feels like the moment has passed for athleisure on the runway. Tucked into flyaway pants, the brand’s signature striped shirting didn’t have the charm of previous seasons. And an off-the-shoulder bomber jacket? Sometimes a classic can be twisted too far.More surprising were the sweaters and sparkly basketball jerseys withMonsewritten across the chest. Monse has never been a logo label, though; Garcia and Kim are stronger when they’re focusing on the pieces that sayMonsewithout actually spelling it out. (According to retailer friends, their deconstructed shirts and scarf dresses are still flying off the racks.)Backstage before the show, Garcia and Kim said the real message was a heartfelt tribute to America. “People have asked us what we think about the U.S. right now, or how we feel about New York—and we love it,” Kim said. “We chose to be here. Neither of us was born in America.” A timely statement, given the president’s recent DACA repeal. Garcia nodded in agreement, then summed it up with the word you’re bound to hear a lot this season: “optimism.”
8 September 2017
From the very beginning, Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim have had crystal-clear signatures at Monse: Their pillars are statement shirting, twisted menswear fabrics, and a general sense of deconstruction. It’s a look beloved by It girls and real women alike—just browse the Monse knockoffs at your local Zara for proof. But there’s still room for experimentation in their established oeuvre, and for Resort Garcia and Kim (who presented their Resort collection for Oscar de la Renta a few days ago) showed a lot of firsts.The biggest surprise was their first floral print—or prints, for that matter. “Scarf dresses” have been a highlight of Monse’s pre-collections, and, where last year’s were striped and polka-dotted, these had a garden’s worth of collaged flowers. From afar, they looked like sunflower- or poppy-stamped handkerchiefs or postcards, but Garcia explained each square was actually inspired by a flower seed packet. One asymmetrical frock in the botanical print had the makings of a charming cocktail dress alternative, and it looked even better with a cocoon-shaped denim jacket thrown on top. The “dad jeans” from Pre-Fallhave already become a big hit, and Kim reported that it’s a growing category for Monse. (In other words, if you’ve been waiting for fashion’s denim fixation to subside, you’ll be waiting a long time).Garcia pointed out Look 3 as his favorite—at first, it appears to be a white handkerchief-hem skirt with a glen-plaid blazer and red belt layered on top, but closer inspection reveals it to be all one piece. Despite Monse’s reputation for deconstructed menswear and oversize, twisted shirting, it’s mostly been known for gowns or separates. This was the first hybrid piece of its kind, and it hinted at similar ideas to come for Spring ’18.
6 June 2017
Tonight was a New York Fashion Week first: Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia, newly installed creative directors at Oscar de la Renta, presented their debut collection for the house on the same runway as their ownMonseline. The audience wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from the show or the clothes; we were promised a “reveal” to divide both collections, but that was all the info we got. Monse marched out first, with an opening look that will be familiar to the label’s fans: a pieced-together, ruffled white shirt with slim black pants. Shirting is one of the label’s most popular “Monse-isms,” as Garcia put it. “We keep trying to find ways to make it interesting,” he explained before the show.Another Monse-ism is twisted tailoring, and here the off-the-shoulder jackets and slashed dresses came in season-appropriate wool herringbone. Several had grommeted belts, too, which Kim and Garcia added for a “tougher” look. Perhaps the time split between the young label and de la Renta—historically a ladylike, refined house—inspired them to give Monse a harder edge by comparison.They also experimented with fur—namely rabbit and sheepskin coats with exaggerated collars—but otherwise, there weren’t very many surprises. Nailing the right balance between a brand’s signatures and brand-new ideas is always tricky, but you didn’t get that visceral, emotional feeling until the finale, when three models exited in sequined gowns that looked like dripping paint. They were inspired by artist Pat Steir, whom Garcia discovered on Instagram, and would make for better red carpet choices than the gowns we saw directly afterwards in the ODLR lineup.
14 February 2017
Many designers see Pre-Fall as an opportunity to tweak and reissue their most essential, core pieces. Sometimes that translates to familiar and easy-to-sell items, but Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia don’t really do basics. Their “fundamentals” are twisted men’s shirting and deconstructed pin-striped dresses. They refreshed both of those categories here, reporting that the “half and half” striped pajama blouses and “Wall Street” suiting dresses from Spring ’17 were the season’s most popular items. So there was a new, very oversize silk button-down that was 50 percent stripes, 50 percent polka dots, worn untucked with “dad jeans,” as Kim jokingly called them. And they introduced their first “tuxedo,” which was actually broken down into a dress.There were some new ideas that Monse fans might find desirable, too. Kim called out a black polka dot double-breasted blazer as one of her favorite pieces; with padded shoulders that sit slightly away from the body and a bow in the back, it was the kind of basic-with-a-twist that put Monse on the map. Kim and Garcia’s early collections relied heavily on deconstructed shirting, a trend Monse helped kick-start but feels a little ubiquitous now; fresher versions of their signature tops came in jewel-toned silks, like a pretty emerald and blush number and a shiny teal dress with vaguely ’80s poufed sleeves.Kim and Garcia’s next collection will be presented around the same time as their Oscar de la Renta debut in February, and to say they’re having a busy end of 2016 would be an understatement. But Garcia said, “More than anything, we’re just excited. Alex [Bolen, ODLR’s CEO] knows us and trusts us.” Plus, the concise, straightforward vision they’ve maintained at Monse will give them the headspace to manage both the growing label and the heritage one.
8 December 2016
Monse’s first show was just one year ago, and long before the first look hit the runway, there was considerable hype surrounding designers Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim, who worked together atOscar de la Rentafor several years before going out on their own. Luckily, the clothes lived up to the excitement, and Monse quickly went from buzzy start-up to global success, both at retail and on the red carpet—a rare feat, particularly for a young label. So when the creative director position at Oscar de la Renta opened up again this summer, Garcia and Kim were a shoe-in. We’ll have to wait until February to see their first collection for the label where they built their careers, but we’re guessing they’ll mix things up with a dose of charm and irreverence.The duo will continue to design Monse, too, which is good news after the strong collection they showed tonight. In their first three seasons, they’ve experimented with simple shirting, high-concept gowns, and unusual fabrications, but Spring ’17 was Monse at its most quintessential. “We realized that a blouse is enough for evening,” Garcia said before the show. “And a little embellishment is really all you need.” In other words, less really is more. That didn’t mean the clothes were plain—every look had something special—but where they could have gone overboard, Garcia and Kim exhibited restraint. That’s key when “effortless” is your m.o.Sequins were the biggest news here, best seen on a few chiffon skirts and tunics that riffed on classic shirting stripes and were dripping with shine. “We wanted to approach embroidery in the same way we approach ready-to-wear, which is kind of in a naive way—patching this with that,” Garcia explained. “We tried to keep it as simple and straightforward as possible.” The daywear was straightforward, too; their signature poplin shirts were pushed off one shoulder, and silk pajama-inspired pieces with mixed-up stripes made a cool, unfussy statement. On the opposite side of the coin, exaggerated cargo pants have become an unexpected hit for Monse; the cropped wide-leg pants and khaki skirt provided some nice contrast to all the sequins and shine. Of course, that high-low mix is what got everyone hooked in the first place. By next Fashion Week, Garcia and Kim will be considerably busier with two collections to design—but now that their vision for Monse is crystal-clear, they’re no doubt up for the challenge.
9 September 2016
It’s hard to believe it has only been about nine months sinceMonsearrived on the scene. Last September, Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim’s debut connected instantly with women—editors, buyers, and, most important, shoppers—with a message that was direct, novel, and wearable. No easy feat! Their first collection took cues from men’s shirting, and theOscar de la Rentaalums found a dozen ways to put their own twist on it: They literally twisted shirts into off-the-shoulder tops and voluminous gowns, but they also reinterpreted classic men’s fabrics, like the striped silk lining of a jacket.That familiar-but-better ethos has become Monse’s signature, one that earned the label a Swarovski Award for Womenswear nomination at Monday’sCFDA Awards. Monse has the celebrity seal of approval, too;Amal Clooneywas recently photographed in a Monse dress from Fall ’16, andSelena Gomezjust opened her Revival tour in a custom tearaway Monse gown. Both women will find something to like in the new Resort collection, which found Garcia and Kim working around another men’s staple: the trenchcoat. A waist-whittling dress in khaki gabardine captured the brand’s spirit. It had the off-the-shoulder silhouette, the day-to-night versatility, and the “slightly unhinged” attitude. What felt new was the humble fabric (which will translate to lower prices) and the thick, extralong belt cinched at the ribcage. “Resort is a market that’s meant for selling, but at the end of the day, there has to be newness,” Garcia said.On that note, there was also more print and color than in previous seasons, seen best on a silk dress with alternating quadrants of houndstooth, stripes, and polka dots, inspired by a scarf Kim borrowed from a friend. It would look right at a corporate office or a ritzy event, and that fluidity is something the designers always consider. “People don’t like to wear traditional evening gowns anymore,” Garcia said. “Usually, the less dressy you look, the cooler you look.” One of Monse’s asymmetrical trench dresses would make a more exciting choice than, say, a beaded black-tie gown, but the really daring shopper will pick up the label’s new superwide-leg cargo pants, pair them with a slinky off-the-shoulder top, and call it a day.
8 June 2016
Last September, Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim debuted their first Monse collection to considerable praise. Editors, buyers, and girls around the world seemed to instantly connect with their deconstructed shirting and silk pajama separates. “Relaxed glamour” was how theOscar de la Rentaalums described it five months ago. Before this evening’s show, Garcia said that they had been thinking along those same lines for Fall, but decided to take things in a more youthful, experimental direction. Shirting continued to be a dominant theme, but Garcia and Kim were also inspired by vintage men’s suiting. They lifted the striped silk lining of a jacket onto asymmetrical dresses, bubble skirts, and drapey, oversize button-downs. “We wanted to keep this idea of ease,” Garcia said, pointing out a dress that unbuttoned at the shoulder to show a little—or a lot—of skin. “And we thought everything should look effortless, like she didn’t spend any time getting ready.”The first look out—a slashed, striped blouse tucked into sailor pants—seemed like something you might actually throw on before running out the door for a party. But after that, the clothes didn’t feel so easy or effortless. Last season was strong due to an element of restraint; here, Garcia and Kim took things a little too far, and in too many different directions. There were clashing fabrics, from the striped silks to a peachy-pink velvet and a laminated taffeta, and confusing silhouettes, like a one-shouldered velvet dress with an enormous sleeve ballooning around the wrist. The shirting-inspired looks weren’t all strong, but at least they hit on the elegant yet familiar vibe that made Monse a success last season. If Garcia and Kim were looking for a new perspective, it would have been nice to see them try their hand at daywear—who wouldn’t want a twisted Monse button-down or T-shirt in her arsenal?
13 February 2016
Aspiring young designers have two new role models to look up to:Laura KimandFernando Garcia, who presented their first collection for Monse on Saturday afternoon. The duo met during stints atOscar de la Renta, where they discovered their own strengths—Kim as design studio director, Garcia as a top designer—while learning from a beloved industry legend.For their buzzy debut, which sawPrabal Gurung, Domenico De Sole, and Ruth Wilson sitting front row, Kim and Garcia presented an original yet approachable vision. “We like the idea of relaxed glamour,” Garcia said before the show. “A classic shirt was the starting point for everything. We realized it’s something that a lot of people can relate to—we just looked at it in a different way.” The first dress out was a cotton poplin mini that mimicked an oversize shirt wrapped artfully around the shoulders. It checked all the right boxes: There was texture, a fresh silhouette, and just a hint of charm—all in one youthful and wearable garment. It was followed by a billowing maxi dress with a similar wrapped-and-knotted effect. Of course, the construction likely wasn’t as easy as tying a bow—breaking down an item as familiar as the button-down shirt wouldn’t work unless the craftsmanship was meticulous and a bit restrained. Those white cotton pieces were naturally relaxed, but even the grander propositions in silk faille, taffeta, and duchesse satin felt effortless. “We wanted it to look like you just buttoned it up and were done,” Kim said. “We’re inspired by real girls today who wear jeans, flats . . . They want something easy.”It’s a concept that mirrored de la Renta’s own passion for ready-to-wear—clothes that make women feel beautiful, without being complicated. You could sense his influence in the rich jewel tones and luxe fabrics, too, and in the 3-D cotton flowers and oversize bows. Prepare to hear a lot more from Monse in the coming months.
13 September 2015