Laura Garcia (Q4990)
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Laura Garcia is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Laura Garcia |
Laura Garcia is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
“I think the age of excess is going away, and I do think that good quality matters again,” said Laura Garcia as she presented her tightly edited fall 2020 collection. Paring back is something the designer has had to think a lot about lately. She was just at the end of her exclusivity agreement with Barneys New York when the retailer went out of business. Garcia has since entered into partnerships with Net-a-Porter and Moda Operandi, but she did hit pause after her last resort collection to determine the best way to move forward. Rather than expand the line itself, Garcia decided to double down on her strengths: feminine and versatile day-to-night dresses.Garcia determined early on that she’d stick with what worked, rather than fetishize newness and her best-selling dresses and corset tops that reappear every season in new fabrics and colors. For fall, the palette was somber (and very New York, the designer noted): mostly black, white, and brown, with pastel highlights. The standout looks were an off-the-shoulder take on Garcia’s popular silhouette and a hammered silk column dress. Also on the racks were sweaters meant for layering, which can extend the usefulness of a dress and, by extension, the need to over-consume.Less overtly joyful than past collections, this lineup was more confident and grown-up, as opposed to girly. “I tried to go away from that ultra-femininity and make it a little bit more minimal and clean. There’s a balance between keeping to what I do and cleaning it up, because at the end of the day, women like to look pretty,” she said. Garcia believes owning that desire is a show of strength.
6 February 2020
A trained ballet dancer, Laura Garcia has been carefully choreographing the growth of her niche label of feminine pieces, taking small steps forward each season on the aesthetic and business fronts. Her Resort 2020 collection retains the tempo of past ones; you’ll still find pretty midi dresses here, a corset-y top that can be dressed up or down, and flirty cocktail dresses of mini length. This time around, they are offered in neon brights, in prints designed by the illustrator Marianna Kulukundis, and tinselly jacquards. “I really believe in custom fabrics and prints because you can’t stand out without them,” the designer states. A party-ready blazer is made in this metallic fabric and lined in highlighter pink, a delight inside and out.For summer days, there are high-waisted cotton dresses with puff sleeves banded with grosgrain ribbon; for sultry nights, a handkerchief hem dress of mixed prints that’s dripping with romanticism and has the “painterly” quality Garcia was after. “There is this element of Victorian-meets-dance, which is so part of my core,” explains the designer, who was looking at pictures of the beautiful Belle Epoque dancer Cléo de Mérode while developing the line. Garcia has just received backing from an investor, so we can expect to see her taking a leap, not just a step, forward for Spring.
8 June 2019
Trends change faster than the fashion industry does, but it has evolved in ways that benefit niche businesses. The advent of e-tailing and the ability of designers to sell direct-to-consumer have allowed designers with a more singular focus, like Laura Garcia and Batsheva, say, to flourish. Once upon a time there was a lot of pressure on designers, whatever their USP, to build entire wardrobes—“I feel that that’s the old way, the department store way,” said Garcia, during a showroom visit. “Now there is room for specialization.” Hers is pretty, easy, made-in-New York dresses. “You do what you do, you build on what you have. People have to come to you for something,” she said.While Garcia’s silhouettes and details, like ruffles at the shoulders and hand-pleating, remain fairly static, newness is created through materials. For Fall, Garcia, who designs all of her fabrics in-house, focused on texture over prints, with a special emphasis on burnouts. She showed her first LBD, and introduced really lovely corset tops with half-sleeves festooned with bows that were pure romance. While the lookbook images, many featuring models in flower crowns, make the clothes look a bit twee, on the rack it was easy to imagine them being adaptable to an active, working life. “Why not wear a dressy dress?” asked Garcia. Not that she opts for the full-on deb potential of her designs, rather, this working mom will wear a sleeveless velvet number, say, over a turtleneck. “I feel like people know how to dress things down now really well,” she said, noting the trend for sneakers and boots. Indulging in a “super girly” look, whether full-on femme (with flower crown), or skewed with accessories and layering, is all about going your own way. And that, noted Garcia, calibrates with the new wave of feminism.
9 February 2019
“It feels rich, like a lot of dress,” says Laura Poretzky-Garcia as she shows me one of the best-selling models from her Spring collection. Ruffled and maxi-length, eight yards of material went into its pleated skirt. “Our pieces have a lot of fabric; they don’t feel flimsy,” the designer says, and that, she believes, is an important point of distinction in the contemporary market.Three seasons ago, Poretzky-Garcia, who had designed under the labelAbaeté, returned to the fray with Laura Garcia. Her aim is to build a brand that consistently delivers core pieces to her customer. Evolution rather than revolution is her m.o. “We don’t change things up completely every season,” the designer emphasizes. For Spring, Poretzky-Garcia’s favorite maxi dresses are back, natch, balanced with some more tailored pieces, a few jackets, and some cropped pants, which in turn are worn over softening, flirtatious lingerie pieces. It’s clear that this is primarily a dress(y) line. That’s not to say it’s formal, but it’s versatile within the pretty, feminine range. These are looks that could take the wearer from the farmers’ market to the Four Seasons Restaurant, where the lookbook was photographed. Though the printed pieces for Spring are sure to appeal, they riff on the expected; fresher and more needle-pushing is the sultry sensuality and color pop of a draped pink camisole paired with a red tiered skirt. “She’s not the Brooklyn girl, necessarily,” says the designer, stating the obvious. It’s sort of refreshing, actually, to hear the phrase “uptown girl” dusted off after so long. Poretzky-Garcia is one herself, having moved from the West Village to Harlem, and the brand is clearly a reflection of the designer’s personal style. “It has to inform the brand,” the designer says, “my name is on the label.”
8 September 2018