Laura Kim on MONSE, Oscar de la Renta, and Finding Her Own DNA

Born in Seoul to a family steeped in artistry and craft—artists and architects on her father’s side, textile artisans on her mother’s—Laura Kim was, in some ways, destined for a creative life. Her early memories are filled with sewing lessons from her grandmother and flipping through Vogue to dream up dresses. After spending eight formative years in Canada for high school, Kim moved to New York at 18 to study fashion at Pratt Institute—her father’s practical solution to having two daughters in school at the same time, as her older sister was pursuing interior design there, too.

After graduation, Kim’s work ethic landed her internships at Jeremy Scott, TSE Cashmere, and Donna Karan. By chance, she dropped off her résumé in Oscar de la Renta’s office, located in the same building as Karan’s office, and began an internship that would shape her for the next 13 years. At the time, she recalls not relating to Oscar’s world of fantasy and formality—that is, until Sarah Jessica Parker donned a raspberry gown by the designer on “Sex and the City,” and she was hooked. Working alongside Oscar de la Renta until his passing, Kim soaked up not just his design sensibility but his joyful, human approach to creativity. “He loved life,” she said. “It showed in his work.” 

In 2015, Kim joined her design counterpart at the brand, Fernando Garcia, to launch their own label, MONSE. Born out of the need to discover their own voices, MONSE demonstrated Kim and Garcia’s evolving identities in fashion. Early MONSE sketches carried an Oscar-like elegance, but with time, experimentation led to a signature approach of deconstructing menswear. By reimagining everyday staples, including shirts and jackets, they forged a new language. Just one year later, Kim and Garcia were hired back at Oscar, becoming the co–creative directors, where they’ve run the brand—alongside MONSE—ever since. 

Kim’s creativity doesn’t stop at fashion. A collaboration with Crate & Barrel brought her garden into the home, surrounded by art and design pieces she lives with, like a Hästens bed and ceramics by Jane Yang-D’Haene. As MONSE celebrates a decade in business this year, Whitewall spoke with Kim about balancing her many creative worlds, and how, through it all, her design ethos remains rooted in authenticity, a respect for craft, and an ever-curious eye on how women truly live and dress today.

Laura Kim on Her Work at Oscar de la Renta

WHITEWALL: When you started at Oscar de la Renta, he was still designing. Was that formative to your learning, working alongside him in the New York office?

LAURA KIM: Yes. He was very hands-on. He had a team, but he was doing everything. He had cancer for eight years so the last two years, he was a little bit less hands-on. But even in those two years, he wanted to know everything.

WW: What did you learn from him that you hope to keep at the brand today? 

LK: He’s a very fun guy. There are some artists who are a little moody—there’s a dark side to their art—but he’s such a happy person. He loves his friends, he loves people. He loves life. That’s something I learned through watching him work because he just wanted to have fun and have an amazing relationship with his team and his vendors. It showed in his work. It’s very happy clothes. It’s never tortured or dark. It’s bright. I also think it comes from where he came from. I haven’t met anyone who’s sad from the Dominican Republic. [Laughs] Fernando also grew up there, and he’s a very happy boy. I think it helped me balance, because I’m a little serious and grumpy. It helped get me out of that mindset. You don’t have to be that to be creative. 

“We’re keeping it very true to the DNA,”

-Laura Kim

WW: You’re speaking about Oscar in the present tense, which feels very special. Do you feel his presence at the label?

LK: Because I’m still working out of the same room, I don’t feel like he’s gone-gone. He is part of our lives every day. I work with his son-in-law, who’s the CEO. His daughter’s still at the office every day. It is still family-owned. And even though we’re pushing it forward, we’re keeping it very true to the DNA. We also have many clients who are so loyal—you can’t just walk away from them. 

Balancing Style and Design

WW: When you were a student wearing joggers and a hoodie, and you walked into an eveningwear brand, what was that like? 

LK: Funny enough, I don’t know why, but I majored in eveningwear. It’s so not me, but at that time of my life, as a student, I saw that part of fashion as more artistic. I almost forgot that my graduation collection was all eveningwear! It’s not my favorite thing, but working for Oscar, I learned how to do it. I now love going out at night wearing one of the creations, but I’m definitely more of a daywear designer. I love making sweaters and jackets. 

I think eveningwear has changed a lot. Even back when I was in my twenties, when I’d go see other designers in Europe, eveningwear wasn’t a big part of their business. But Oscar had a huge eveningwear business in the U.S. But COVID-19 changed the eveningwear business even more. We modernized it: fewer ball gowns, more practical, more home-entertaining, more casual eveningwear than gala wear. 

WW: Personal style and fashion are different things, and here you’re speaking to items that cater to personal style. How do you approach design when you’re thinking about it as personal style rather than wow-factor fashion?

LK: I struggled with that until COVID-19. When COVID-19 started and we cut down our budget, we looked at how much we could develop. We asked, “What does our client need right now?” We thought they were entertaining at home. They probably had an amazing estate with a backyard and a swimming pool. Thinking that way made me understand what she needed. I had to stop the fantasy part of my job. There was no more runway. It was only about her. I focused on her life. I follow a lot of our clients on Instagram and I see what they’re doing, what they’re eating, and what they’re doing with their families. That was a good turning point in my career, where I focused on selling aspects of it. We still needed a little bit of wow factor, but we were so focused on creating just enough to sell, and it actually helped Oscar’s business grow. We had a really hard time in the beginning, but our business has been so healthy and better than ever. I hate to say that putting the wow factor aside really helped me grow the business, but it did.

Decoding MONSE with Laura Kim

WW: Tell us about balancing your roles at Oscar de la Renta and your own label, MONSE, with Fernando. You mentioned he’s more fantastical and you’re more practical. What is it like working alongside him on two labels?

LK: We’ve known each other for about 15 years, and he started as my intern. Even from day one, we were very honest with each other about what we’re good at and what we’re bad at. And we were open to each other’s opinions. I’m much better at managing the team and the finances. I like to create clothes that sell, that I can wear every day. I’m very practical that way. If eveningwear sold as much as daywear, I probably would have stayed in eveningwear, but I see money in sweaters and pants, so I put my time more in that category. Fernando loves celebrity—movies and image-creating. He’s focused more on the PR side, and the fantasy part of the collection. But we check on each other on everything. 

WW: You’re celebrating a decade of MONSE this year. Back then, why did you want to start a new brand?

LK: When Oscar passed, he didn’t give us the job. He hired Peter Copping to be the creative director. Fernando didn’t want to leave, but I said, “We’re leaving.” We started MONSE. The biggest reason was the fact that we didn’t get the job, but the second was that I wanted to find my own DNA as a designer.

When Oscar was going through the process of hiring Peter, Fernando and I interviewed, and between the two of us, we interviewed at most of the design houses in Europe. Everyone kept saying, “You guys are too Oscar.” Most designers only stay at a job for like three years, but I stayed at Oscar for 13 years, so I only had one job. I didn’t have my own DNA. 

I said, “Okay, I need to figure this out before it’s too late because I don’t want to be in my fifties, stuck on Oscar’s DNA.” So, we started MONSE. The goal was to find out who we were outside of Oscar. It took us a good six months to sketch and sketch and sketch. We went to show all the buyers at Saks, Neiman’s, Bergdorf, and Barneys and asked editors at magazines to come look at it. They said, “It still looks Oscar.” It still looks Oscar. We had to redo it so many times until our first collection came out.

“I wanted to find my own DNA as a designer,”

-Laura Kim

WW: Now, ten years later, how would you describe MONSE’s DNA? 

LK: Not intentionally, but I think MONSE looks very much like a Korean brand. It’s funny because I left Korea when I was nine, when I was wearing school uniforms, so it wasn’t like I was wearing deconstructed jackets, but the culture is inside of me. MONSE resembles what Korea’s streetwear looks like, and it’s something I found very fascinating. And Fernando’s Latin side definitely adds the sexiness. He likes women to look hot and sexy and be confident.