Monse Put a Deconstructed Spin on Florals for the Runway

2 min read

Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia are in full bloom at Monse, in more ways than one. Tonight’s spring/summer 2027 show, styled by ELLE’s fashion director Alex White, which debuted inside the towering glass penthouse of the former Domino Sugar Refinery in Williamsburg, was flowering with the label’s signature stripes, sequined gowns, and inventive silhouettes that seamlessly mix deconstruction with femininity and over-the-top details. Everything was inspired by tulips. Gowns were covered in cascades of paillettes, and feathered finishes added a sculptural finish to dresses. Hemlines were ruffled, and jackets were fringed with intricate precision that had a certain kind of cinematic movement that makes you really believe in the power of great texture.

Sitting in their studio a few weeks before their big reveal, the duo was surrounded by hanging racks full of gowns exploding with sculptural hand-dyed silk tulips and lacy dresses (with matching, specially developed ribbons) designed with all kinds of floral motifs, with hues plucked straight from the garden. For the first time in a decade, the two are putting all of their efforts solely into the Monse brand after their departure from Oscar de la Renta.

“I think that this collection in particular is very special to Laura and myself,” Garcia told ELLE. “We have been doing two brands for 10 years at the same time and sort of siloing our creativity into each one, depending on the aesthetic of the brand. And this is the first time in 10 years that we have had the chance to just focus on one brand and put all of our ideas into one as opposed to two.”

During the collection preview, Kim held up one of the gowns dripping with dramatically draped, sculptural tulips streaked with stripes and veins of color, which Garcia painted himself. “These tulips, it wasn’t their natural form,” said Kim, referring to the starting point for the collection, which was Kim’s love of gardening and a book she recently read about Tulipmania, the 17th-century Dutch event in which prices for newly introduced tulip bulbs soared to extreme heights before crashing dramatically in February 1637. “It happened because they got a virus. And I find that story very related to Monse. It’s like a broken beauty.” In this case, the white button-down shirt was the humble staple the designer duo injected its own kind of deconstructed energy into over a decade ago. That’s where it all began.

The designers used the wrong side of certain fabrics to convey a streaked, organic look in jackets and dresses—in particular, on one vibrant pink and green barn jacket. Elsewhere, bold and bright pieces of lingerie popped underneath black-and-white lace, like pretty glitches in the algorithm. It truly all goes back to the white shirt that started it all. Garcia adds with a laugh, “Laura and I never were happy from the beginning of Monse with the banal white shirt, so we deconstructed it.” With their energy turned to Monse full-time now, the next era of the brand is just getting started.

Kristen Bateman is a contributing editor at Harper’s Bazaar. Her first fashion article was published in Vogue Italia during her junior year of high school. Since then, she has interned and contributed to WWD, Glamour, Lucky, i-D, Marie Claire and more. She created and writes the #ChicEats column and covers fashion and culture for Bazaar. When not writing, she follows the latest runway collections, dyes her hair to match her mood, and practices her Italian in hopes of scoring 90% off Prada at the Tuscan outlets. She loves vintage shopping, dessert and cats.