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COURTESY OF OSCAR DE LA RENTA
untapped markets on the horizon farther east.
In a fashion landscape that feels increasingly
divided between megabrands owned by luxury con-
glomerates and struggling indie labels, Oscar de
la Renta is unusual: It’s a midsize, apparel-driven,
family-owned company. Most brands with any mar-
ket share are fueled by robust handbag, shoe and
fragrance businesses, with runway fashion amount-
ing to little more than an extension of marketing.
“Everything we put out there, we want to sell, which
is exactly what Oscar taught us,” says Alex Bolen,
51, the company’s CEO and de la Renta’s son-in-law
by marriage. (His wife is Eliza Bolen, executive vice
president of the company and the daughter of de
la Renta’s second wife, Annette Reed de la Renta.)
Bolen declined to disclose the size of the busi-
ness, instead citing reports that have put the fi rm
at $150 million in revenues. The idea now is to sell
more bags, more shoes and, of course, more clothes
to more new people.
Much had to happen in order for Kim and Garcia
to get here. They left Oscar de la Renta to start their
own New York–based label, Monse, in 2015, and in
early 2016 took positions at Carolina Herrera, long
regarded as de la Renta’s top rival, a move that Bolen
found particularly pointed. “I sued both of them,”
says Bolen.
Eventually his anger subsided. “I called Laura and
said, ‘I think I’ve made a big mistake, and I’m going
to drop it,’” he recalls. “‘Would you consider coming
back?’ And she said, ‘Maybe.’”
Kim and Garcia were named co–creative direc-
tors of Oscar de la Renta in September 2016, with the
house taking a minority stake in Monse as part of the
deal. However, the lawsuits didn’t end there. That
December, Carolina Herrera fi led suit to block Kim
from rejoining Oscar de la Renta, citing violation of
her noncompete agreement. The suit was settled the
following month.
Kim, Garcia and Bolen emerged from the legal
wrangling committed to working together and with
their senses of humor intact. Kim sketched a handbag
that became the company’s bestseller and named it
the TRO, for Temporary Restraining Order. While not
drama-free, their time apart taught valuable lessons
to everyone.
“I would never have been able to do the job I’m
doing now without those two or three years outside
of Oscar’s wing,” says Garcia. “The people that we
thought were going to be supportive disappeared,
and the few of them that were there for us were the
ones that kicked off [Monse] to where it is.” And
there’s no better way to learn the value of money
than by spending your own. “When we were here as
assistants, we always complained that there wasn’t
enough budget,” says Kim. “When we left, we were
like, ‘That was great.’ ”
For his part, Bolen got an education on the design
process when he found himself responsible for two
collections without a creative director in the interim
between Copping’s departure and Kim and Garcia’s
return. “There was a lot of decision making by me
and by other people around here—creative disaster,
just [a] total horrible idea,” says Bolen. “I was told
by Fernando after the fact that at some point he said
to Laura, ‘Gee, do you think I should off er Alex some
assistance?’ and Laura said, ‘No, I think it will be
good for him.’ ”
Kim and Garcia were ready to go back to Oscar
de la Renta when the time came. Still, they didn’t
arrive home to a hero’s welcome. “We came back
thinking we were coming back to a place we knew,
because it was a team I built and Fernando built
before we left,” says Kim. “But it was diff erent.” The
staff had mourned the death of its leader and dealt
with Copping’s short stint. People left. New hires
came through. “It was a little disheveled,” says Kim.
It showed their fi rst few seasons, as they grappled
with helping the brand evolve beyond its heritage of
polished glamour. Uptown was a word heavily asso-
ciated with de la Renta, who famously dressed fi rst
ladies such as Nancy Reagan, Hillary Clinton and
Laura Bush, as well as the tony society contingent
of Babe Paley and C.Z. Guest, before breaking into
Hollywood glitz as a favorite of Sarah Jessica Parker
RUNWAY SUCCESS
From left : Garcia and Kim’s designs, as seen in fall 2017, spring 2018, fall 2018, spring 2019 and fall 2019.
Opposite: Garcia, Oscar de la Renta and Kim in 2014.
W
HEN OSCAR de la Renta died in
2014 after a lengthy battle with
cancer, Laura Kim, then his
head designer, didn’t have time
to fall apart, slack off or, as she
says, even read obituaries. She
was busy cleaning out de la Renta’s offi ce for his suc-
cessor, Peter Copping.
It was an awkward task, since Kim, 37, and her
design partner, Fernando Garcia, 32, had spent
years working under de la Renta, rising from interns
to designers and forming a bond with him along
the way.
But Copping, who was recruited from French fash-
ion house Nina Ricci, didn’t last. And on a late April
afternoon nearly fi ve years later, it’s Kim and Garcia
who sit behind a desk in de la Renta’s former offi ce
on the 25th fl oor of the company headquarters over-
looking Manhattan’s Bryant Park. Nearly three years
into their role as co–creative directors of the house,
they’ve reset a business that was intrinsically linked
to the larger-than-life personality of its founder—a
man famous for his charm who vacationed with the
Clintons and counted the Kissingers as close confi -
dants. The American brand, which has historically
served a mostly American market, is at last expand-
ing its reach internationally with the opening of
a Paris boutique this summer, and there are new,
a budget to pay stars to wear the cloth-
ing. “It’s very humbling when someone
chooses things that we design to propel
their careers forward,” says Garcia. “You
can’t throw money at them. They think
your design is the best, so that’s the high-
est praise.” It’s also invaluable exposure,
which Garcia works hard to maintain
and deliver, cultivating relationships
with stylists and a list of celebrities
that has grown long, diverse and very
high-profile.
Meghan Markle chose not to wear an
American label for her wedding to Prince
Harry last year, but she wanted her
mother, Doria Ragland, to and person-
ally put in the request with Garcia. Celine
Dion wore Oscar de la Renta to this year’s
Met Gala, as did Regina King, who also
chose the brand for the Academy Awards,
when she took home her first Oscar for If
Beale Street Could Talk.
“I get that feeling that Fernando saw
something in me that he understood from
afar,” says King, noting that Garcia intu-
ited what she wanted. “I never even told
him that I don’t like to wear heels, and
he pulled something out of the collection
where flats would work. Simple but classic is how I
like to [describe] myself, and Fernando keyed in on
that before he even met me.”
Kim admits she is not the type “who can fluff the
gown and say, ‘Oh, my gosh, you should try this on,’”
she says. Production, fit and policing product when
it hits the store are more her territory. Tracking
sell-throughs is an obsession. She religiously reads
reports from retailers, measuring sales versus
returns versus how long merchandise was on sale.
She personally tries on as much of the collection
as possible before production. “When I see a lot of
return rates, I’m like, ‘Let’s try that on again,’” she
says. “And I’ll know: Well, that doesn’t fit.”
Bolen, Garcia and Kim have formed an easy bond
over the years. “We speak the same language,”
Bolen says. “Sometimes we speak the language to
each other in loud voices.” No matter who’s talking
loudest, the three share a competitive gene, some-
thing they say was given to them by de la Renta
himself. It’s driving them toward the common goal
of growth.
The plan is to increase revenues exponentially in
the next few years. Building up handbags and shoes
i s a bi g fo c u s. “ I wa nt to b e i n t he tote bu si ness,” says
Bolen. “Everyone in the world needs a tote.” A store
and showroom in Paris are opening this summer
after a months-long delay following the improbable
discovery of a 10-by-20-foot 17th-century painting
commissioned by the Marquis de Nointel, Louis
XIV’s ambassador to the Ottoman court, hidden
behind a wall during construction. Bolen researched
it, commissioned a museum-grade restoration and
has since found out that it was one of four canvases
believed to be by the artist Jacques Carrey; the
paintings were originally hung in Château de Bercy,
then dismantled and sold off during the Haussmann
era of urban renewal in 19th-century Paris. It’s an
exciting, mysterious happenstance that seems
plucked from a Dan Brown plotline. The painting
will now greet visitors to the boutique alongside
racks of clothes.
Then there’s luxury fashion’s new frontier: China.
“It’s water out of a fire hose,” says Bolen, in terms of
the opportunity he sees there. As of now, Oscar de la
Renta has minimal exposure in the market—under
$10 million annually. But if what analysts say is true,
Bolen thinks that number could be up to $100 million
in the next five years, and he is opening a Shanghai
office. “It’s difficult to move as fast as I would like to
as an independent brand,” he says.
That sounds a bit like a bid for investors. Asked if
he’s interested, Bolen says no. “At some point I could
say, ‘Guys, we’re missing opportunities by not hav-
ing financial partners.’ But I’m not there yet,” says
Bolen. “I came here thinking that I was going to
help Oscar sell the company. And here I sit, 15 years
later.”
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COURTESY OF OSCAR DE LA RENTA
and Penelope Cruz. He designed Amal Clooney’s
bridal gown for her wedding to George Clooney. Kim
and Garcia, meanwhile, are navigating the reality of
an ever more casual world.
It wasn’t until the spring 2019 collection, a merger
of Moroccan-inspired richness and relaxed moder-
nity, that Kim and Garcia felt they had achieved a
balance between appealing to loyalists and inject-
ing new ideas. The look is less froufrou, more edgy,
urban and sensual in a polished way. “It reflects our
life a lot,” says Kim, whose personal taste hews more
minimalist than de la Renta’s. “I constantly remind
myself, ‘Oscar’s about color, Oscar’s about texture,
Oscar’s about beautiful artwork.’” There are still
gowns and de la Renta’s beloved tweed jackets, but
now they’re likely to be worn over a bustier crop top.
They’ve modernized the collection with evening
tops and daywear like denim and tailored pieces.
“Once [the customer] started seeing these newer
ideas, she started dropping that tried-and-true
cocktail dress that 10 years ago was the bread and
butter of the brand,” says Garcia.
“Basically since they started, year-on-year we’ve
had great double-digit growth,” says Elizabeth von
der Goltz, global buying director at Net-a-Porter.
“This very modern, young DNA is bringing a new cli-
ent to Oscar.”
Between Oscar de la Renta and Monse, Kim and
Garcia spend almost all their waking hours together.
“We work out together,” says Kim.
“Weekends together,” says Garcia.
“We eat breakfast together,” says Kim.
“We’re tied at the hip. Is that the expression?”
says Garcia.
The inseparable friends were, around the time
they launched Monse, even engaged to be married.
Kim grew up in Seoul and Calgary, Canada, and
moved to New York to study fashion design at the
Pratt Institute. After she interned for a year for de la
Renta during college, he hired her. “I sat there listen-
ing for a couple of months,” says Kim. “At the time,
André Leon Talley was [the brand’s] stylist, and it
was so fun. Anna [Wintour] would come in. I was like,
‘Wow, this is really cool here.’ ”
Garcia has no formal fashion background. He
studied architecture at the University of Notre Dame
and arranged a meeting with de la Renta through
connections in his native Dominican Republic, where
de la Renta grew up and maintained an elegant vaca-
tion retreat. “I was obsessed with fashion because
of the film industry. I love red carpets,” says Garcia.
“Oscar is a god in the Dominican Republic, so when I
had the chance to share some sketches with him, he
told me about this girl Laura who was working with
him. And he dumped me on her.”
Garcia is still passionate about celebrity dressing
and takes it very seriously, without the cushion of
“ONCE [THE CUSTOMER] STARTED SEEING THESE NEWER
IDEAS, SHE STARTED DROPPING THAT TRIED-AND-TRUE
COCKTAIL DRESS THAT 10 YEARS AGO WAS THE BREAD AND
BUTTER OF THE BRAND.” –FERNANDO GARCIA
