Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim’s mission at Oscar de la Renta is clear: Expand the client base while keeping the loyalists happy. While the goal is obvious, how to accomplish it is slightly more complicated. Garcia and Kim are taking a practical tack.
“We’re trying to keep the silhouettes as simple as possible so they can span a new pool of clients,” said Garcia during a preview of the resort lineup, presented on a rooftop garden at Rockefeller Center on one of the sunniest days yet in a dreary New York spring. Still very feminine, there was a welcome paring down and purification of the shapes and embellishments. A navy jersey knit dress with a nautical rope detail around the neckline skimmed the body and fell into a minimalist flounce. Evening gowns with sequined bodices had straight column skirts; other evening tops were worn with pants. Trench coats in classic khaki and bottle green worn open over garden print dresses exuded daytime glamour in an undone way.
Garcia and Kim consciously kept the house codes in gear by working with things de la Renta loved, florals and greenery themes especially. Henri Rousseau-inspired tropical motifs appeared on a twill trench, a printed blouse and pleated skirt. There was plenty of silk faille, a de la Renta staple, here treated with a lightweight hand, but also fabrications that Garcia, Kim and likely the next generation of ODLR clients favor. Prime example: denim. Kim pointed out that de la Renta had done denim before in super deluxe double-faced cashmere. Her versions were done in the fabric and cuts of our lives. Oscar de la Renta will never be street, but Kim and Garcia’s wide-leg jeans, white pencil skirts and boxy jean jackets embroidered with a sequined and crystal monkey drinking a martini injected an authentic youth current and relaxed attitude into the ethos.