Here’s the recurring conundrum in the world of fashion: how
does a new designer for a heritage brand retain and incorporate the DNA of the
brand without looking like a rehash or just completely ignoring its archive? We
see it every season and yet there are so few who can successfully meld the old
and the new. One of the major issues sits with the viewer who has a long fashion
history and even wider breadth of fashion knowledge who can actually speak to
the topic at hand.
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Case in point; Oscar
de la Renta Fall 2017 which is now designed by Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia who followed the Monse duo, who followed Peter
Copping who followed the eponymous designer. Oscar had signature style,
silhouettes, mood, flamboyance, chic, soigne and a very loyal clientele. Again
the question arises of how to proceed when succession is in place and what direction
will the collection take with each new grand poobah of design. Mr. Copping
started out with best foot forward and eventually morphed into less of an Oscar
client and more of a quirky Peter Copping client. Next up were a couple of
collections designed by the team from Monse which, to me was almost laughable
if not unthinkable from the get go.
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Kim and Garcia
seem to have taken the step of incorporating the old and the new with few
missteps. On the whole the collection was polished clean and contained lots of
the ODLR esthetic. When the new designers erred it was with shapes that
appeared to be a little to volumetric, if you will, and then there was this
overriding sense of restraint and minimalism. Oscar was never about minimal in
any sense; in the course of time, there were few prints, embroideries, colors
and silhouettes that passed him by. Maybe the best way to say it is that Oscar always
retained and channeled his Latin heritage and it manifested itself in shapes,
colors and overall mood. BUT I digress., it was a beautiful collection just not
exciting and if I had to find one negative it would have been the ode to trend
which came via the oversized sloping black sweater… an unfortunate choice
for a collection of this stature.
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