Tara Swennen
Oscar de la Renta
Laura Kim:
Only really eat breakfast. Celery juice. Ginger tea. Spaced out 30 minutes in between. After two hours traditional Korean breakfast. Soup. Rice. Soy glazed chicken with tofu
Fernando Garcia: rainbow colored pasta. Korean hand cut noodles made by Laura.
I always do takeout. Have tiny stove and usually do something egg based in morning.
Laura Kim: Carry on dna and not abandon existing client. We wanted to slowly get younger and different clients. Slowly so doesn’t scare business side. Bigger audience now at Oscar than decade ago.
Fernando Garcia: took couple years for us to figure out what people around us wear.
Laura Kim: When we go to stores for trunk shows, sales people tell us Oscar is one of brands that daughter, mother and grandmother can wear. Our quality now is better than ever. Our ceo Alex [Bolen] empowered us to source better fabric and use better labor.
Lauren Sherman: construction, fit. Structure of garment is so good. I can even wear three different sizes.
Laura Kim: older clients in 70s who have body like 17 year olds and dress much younger than same age peers.
Fernando: some women come in and buy entire wardrobe for entire season.
Laura: everyone had budget cut during Covid. We focused on who our client is. We ordered 15 fabrics instead of 30. Sold same amount of clothes and after a few seasons we sold even more. Important to focus on who client is. We stopped doing minimal things bc that’s not what people are coming to Oscar de la Renta for.
Fernando: when we started Monse, knitwear became starting point.
Lauren Sherman: Monse celebrities: Sarah Jessica Parker , Michelle Obama at DNC two years ago.
Fernando: Monse started in line with Instagram. social media changed our trajectory. We didn’t have budget to advertise in magazines so dressing celebrities was our go-to and talking about it on Instagram.
Laura Kim: for Monse, whenever someone wears something, there is more attraction to our website and we sell more product.
Laura Kim: I think you did Business of Fashion reviews for Monse.
Lauren Sherman: yes. Laura, you were initially shy but you became spokesperson for new customer of Oscar.
Laura Kim: when we first started at Monse I was too young and didn’t relate to customer. When I was older in late 30s I started relating more in regards to what I wear for work or vacation or an event.
We worked 18 hours a day. Only place we went was office. We didn’t even go to dinner.
Fernando: life we live is applied directly into collection.
Lauren Sherman: how did you choose to now step away from Oscar de la Renta and focus on Monse?
Laura Kim: we needed some room to breathe. We’re not same person as a decade ago. It’s about our vision for next 20 years.
Fernando: Monse grew and we were being transparent about it needing our full attention.
Fernando: business at Oscar is ready to wear business. We have confidence to now focus on that at Monse.
Laura Kim: I’ve been at Oscar for 23 years. I need to try something new. We are excited to grow something on our own.
Fernando: Laura and I are competitive as people.
Laura: We want to build Monse to be a lifestyle brand. Something we can’t do at Oscar.
Fernando: parents who raised us with harsh truth as love language. Oscar did that too. Blunt thoughts without offense.
Laura: I like Fernando as a person. I want to see him everyday.
https://fashiontrustus.com/about/advisory-board/2025
Tara Swennen is model for Oscar de la Renta, whose exiting co-creative director Fernando Garcia is 2025 advisory board member for foundation that shares Qatar as sponsor w/ Hamas.
