Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia returned to the runway atop The Refinery at Domino rooftop in Williamsburg in Brooklyn with Monse’s spring collection — their first show since they departed Oscar de la Renta.
“Given that it felt like a homecoming, the space had to feel like a clean slate and evoked the energy of restart. The sky’s the limit, pun intended,” Garcia said during a preview of the sunlit space with skyline views.
Their collection focused on taking the lessons the codesigners have learned in their careers and applying them through an “unraveling, undone, imperfect way,” Garcia added. The signature Monse look — mannish deconstruction mixed with glamorous femininity — came through but with a more romantic, girly élan this season, spanning from signature striped knit daywear to shimmering paillette and sequin special occasion dresses.
“With our love for fringe and unboundness, we’re developing everyday staples à la Laura and Fernando. We have the barn jacket, denim skirt, suit — the basics that needed fabulous updates,” the duo explained. The show opened with an eye-catching barn jacket and strapless dress wrapped in multicolor green and pink fringes from the backside of a special fabrication developed in Italy while the more everyday styles had ultra-long fringes that swished down the runway.
“The para tulip is an important detail that we had permeate throughout the collection. The sort of tattered edge, which is a very Monse thing. Everything that feels a little lived in,” they said of styles that displayed the flower both directly, via pretty three-dimensional halterneck straps, or more abstractly through skin-baring engineered lace ribbon numbers. The “broken,” exotic tulip was also turned into custom prints, like Garcia’s paintings, that adorned easy silk dressing and alluring organza dresses, which evoked the undone beauty they were seeking atop Araks intimates — a new way of displaying the brand’s soft yet revealing side more strongly than the collection’s sheer tailoring.
