NEW YORK — Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia spent a combined 18 years at Oscar de la Renta and are now about to launch their own label, Monse. With their first runway show set for Saturday at The Norwood Club, the pair has been busy finishing up their debut collection. Working from a Varick Street studio, Kim and Garcia took a break Tuesday afternoon to discuss their new arrangement and de la Renta’s lasting influence.
Raised in the Dominican Republic and Spain, Garcia first met de la Renta at the beachfront Punta Cana home of Frank Rainieri. A friend of Garcia’s father, who is friendly with Rainieri (de la Renta’s business partner at Punta Cana) suggested the aspiring designer go there to meet him. That meeting led to an internship, which evolved into a principal designer role at de la Renta’s company. Their first meeting was a point of discussion when Garcia and Kim told the designer in October 2014 that they planned to resign. De la Renta reminded Garcia jokingly how he had found him on the beach, Garcia said, “He made it sound like there were no roads or electricity in the Dominican Republic. It was definitely a difficult transition. He used to say to me, ‘I don’t care how talented you are, as long as I can have lunch with you every day, that’s all that maters.'”
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“That’s how Oscar was.” Kim added.
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After “the John Galliano thing” fell through, Garcia said he and Kim told de la Renta they were thinking about going out on their own. After the designer died last fall and Peter Copping was named creative director, Kim agreed to stay on until February and Garcia committed part-time through the Met Gala in May. Kim and Garcia still count on the company’s former front-woman, Erika Bearman, for advice and said they are eager to show Alex Bolen their first Monse collection.
Using the shirt as a major source of inspiration, Kim and Garcia aim to find their own space in the young designer sector. A striped shirtdress, a strapless jumpsuit, knee-length skirt with an oversize floral design and a white midriff-baring top with a coordinating skirt are among the options. Prices range from $500 to $4,000, with most of the styles being $1,000 to $2,000. “Oscar sort of brainwashed us to make sure we had strong price points. I keep saying ‘at Oscar — we’ because it’s kind of hard to disassociate,” Garcia said. “…[everything] has to be a good price and look the price — that’s all we heard every season. Oscar really believed in having affordable things. That’s why maybe sometimes the runway pieces were not as fun but they were super-smartly priced and were super thought-about.”
Garcia said de la Renta also taught him “to have fun every day at work. No matter what, we would never allow each other to go home upset. And we would fight a lot.”
But those design debates were often reconsidered, according to Kim, who offered, “He would call you at night. I learned to really listen. He was very open to everyone’s ideas. He fought back but…he really listened to everybody.”
Being part of a small team also meant the duo “were a little overwhelmed” designing 400 styles of children’s wear, bridal and ready-to-wear each season. With Monse, they will create much more manageable 30- to 35-piece collections, but they don’t have the luxury of the financial support they had at de la Renta’s company “to throw at their ideas,” Kim said. “Now that we started our own company, I don’t know if I ever want to hire a designer because the money we used to spend on development.”
While they often consider what their mentor might think of their designs “all the time,” they also have the independence to experiment. Garcia said, “We might say, ‘Oscar would never approve of this length — let’s try it.’ It’s another way of designing, thinking about what he wouldn’t let happen. You’re learning — you’re discovering yourself.”
Unlike some young designers, they have the advantage of having worked closely with key retailers that they now hope to sell to. Kim and Garcia have also since reconnected and designed customized Monse dresses for Sarah Jessica Parker and Amal Clooney, whom they first met through de la Renta. Recalling how they dressed 14 celebrities for last year’s Charles James-inspired Met Ball, Kim and Garcia singled out Taylor Swift as “the sweetest” (as well as “just petrified to be in the studio”) and Sarah Jessica Parker as “the funnest and smartest.” Garcia said of Parker, “When she came in, she sat on the floor, had a binder and was very well-studied.”
Having worked on Clooney’s wedding dress, Garcia said, “The whole process was a dream,” including the Annie Leibovitz photo shoot at de la Renta’s atelier. And the human-rights activist lawyer readily requested sketches and a few dresses when she heard Kim and Garcia had launched Monse.
As for their own wedding, Kim said that occasion will have to wait. She said, “I think I spent all of my budget on this show. There will be no wedding budget — maybe when we start a bridal line.”