Last spring, Oscar de la Renta co-creative directors Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim debuted a fabulously fun fashion film, directed by Garcia, set to a Billie Eilish track.
“I think that resonated with our customer — that ‘for every woman’ appeal and energy was happy and warm,” Garcia explained at the brand’s Bryant Park showroom. So they did it again, centering fall’s film around the idea of frustrated office girls who just want to go party — making their way through New York City (passing Tan France along the way while swiping into the subway with Oscar de la Renta-themed metro card) to get to the Boom Boom Room to the tune of Britney Spears’ “Gimme More.”
“It’s Oscar de la Renta, b—h.”
Coming out of COVID-19, the brand has seen an uptick in young customers — cocktail attire was noted to be outperforming floor-length gowns. Fall included both but emphasized a sense of lightness and party-girl energy with bra tops, colorful vegan leather layers, whimsical echinacea-inspired floral daywear (including 3D crochet knits and Florentine-inspired prints with ribbons, pearls and seashells), a continuation of girly tweed (and checkerboard) miniskirt sets and plenty of cocktail shakers.
But this is Oscar de la Renta we’re talking about — glamour, quality and craftsmanship are of the utmost importance, and it continues to be. Garcia and Kim introduced divine “semi-couture” 3D floral dresses painstakingly crafted with one-by-one, hand-placed velvet hand-cut petals. There was also a disco-ball sequined mini (a riff on last season’s shredded bow embroidery), a rose covered sheer number (in the duo’s now signature thread work embroideries), and a handful of playfully glamorous looks in eyelash paillettes and ombre micro-sequins.
“If you want a cheap dress you can go to [bleep], darling. We don’t do that here,” one of the film’s “working girls” cheekily remarked.
“Because we moved away from fur, fabric manipulation has been an interesting topic for us to explore,” Garcia said. Volume came through fluffy shredded georgette and tulle dresses and coats — there was even a bombastic blue tinsel cape.
Gimme, gimme, more indeed.