There's a moment when a fashion brand goes from exciting upstart to established cool. Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia are embracing that transition this season, as they finalize their latest collection while preparing to open Monse's first retail store this spring.
Trained as ateliers, the pair founded Monse in 2015 as a downtown counterpart to the Uptown stalwarts of New York. These days, Kim and Garcia still work daily with their hands, crafting their elevated shirting and deconstructed suiting. It's a label that frequently pops up on musicians and actors—Kiernan Shipka and Jennifer Lopez among them—looking for a touch of the city's edgier styles.
Now Monse is planning its next iteration. This week, they designers are taking over the Soho Grand during New York Fashion Week, showing a collection that matches the moody nature of its setting. In a preview of their moodboard, titled "PENTHOUSE SUITE," all the Monse-isms are there, but they've upped the ante with bolder patterns, colors, and playful tailoring. They’ve also enlisted Kohler to transform the hotel's Club Room into a dressing room for guests of the show.
To mark the debut, CULTURED caught up with Kim to hear how she's getting ready for one of the biggest seasons of her career. Here, she illuminates what it's like to reach the point this city's young creatives are dreaming of.
CULTURED: Monse started out as the downtown brand for the daughter of the Uptown customer. Has that evolved at all and did you want it to?
Laura Kim: A few years ago, Monse reflected an era in my life where I was going out a lot. We are bringing more range to the brand now because women live so many lives in a day. We cross everything from casual to super luxe but it’s all done with a focus on quality. This season, the hotel has really inspired our energy. Fernando and I are on the road so much that we’re practically living out of hotels and our Monse customers are too. We are playing with the classic sophistication of the glam era but making it new and making it us.
CULTURED: What can we expect from the show this year?
Kim: We're pushing ourselves to surprise people—not just with the clothes but with the entire experience—using a hotel that would create a stage. Monse has always been youthful and sexy. Soho Grand captures that character. While we were planning, I was working with my friends at Kohler on a campaign and shared [that] it has always been a dream of ours to have an immersive element at the show. We felt they could bring the vision to life because they've worked with such big and important artists at Art Basel and Salone del Mobile. They were uniquely suited to pull off the vision of a getting ready space and the timing was right.
CULTURED: Why is it important to you to have an experiential component to this show?
Kim: Fernando studied as an architect. I've designed home collections. We saw an opportunity to create something playful and we like that. It's fun to bring glam into the space because it is such a part of the fashion business. I like crossing these boundaries and surprising people. I think a lot of people will be surprised to see me as the face of a campaign this month too because I am normally behind the scenes. I am full of surprises.
CULTURED: Are there other surprises in the works?
Kim: Well we took a space for a store. I want art to be a big part of it but more to come on that later! Talk to me about it after the show.
CULTURED: As an independent designer, do you still find fashion week to be as important as it has been in recent years? Many seem to take time off and then return.
Kim: We still believe in it. It has changed so much over the years but it is still how we want to reach the world. We do so much custom work for stylists, especially red carpet. This is really where we show everyone the forms that we are excited about. There is no substitute for creating a real life environment with our designs.
