Peter Copping Out at Oscar de la Renta, *Update* Laura Kim & Fernado Garcia Confirmed

[Nymphaea]

^That feels weird and not done, curious tho.

 

[VogueDisciple93]

This sounds like a very very strange idea, but we will see how it works as it unfolds. I will say their return to OdlR has done wonders for Monse because despite all these outlets reporting how hot the brand is I, nor anyone I know, ever heard of it. I can only imagine combining the shows will raise the brand's profile even more.

 

[Benn98]

Can we please update the title of the thread........

Oscar de la Renta Has a New Creative Team, a New Look, and a Growing New Base, Including Zoe Kravitz, Huma Abedin, and Nicky Hilton

by Karin Nelson
August 18, 2017 9:00 am

A cupid in a custom-tailored suit, the late fashion designer Oscar de la Renta spent considerable effort trying to find a fella for his studio director, Laura Kim. “He would be like, ‘How about this guy?’ ” recalls Kim, a 35-year-old Korean-born Canadian who joined the house as an intern in 2003 and went on to work by de la Renta’s side for more than a decade. “I’d be like, ‘Oscar, isn’t he engaged?!’ ”

It never panned out—at least not on the personal front. Professionally, however, de la Renta found Kim the perfect match when, in 2009, he brought fellow Dominican Fernando Garcia on board. Garcia, whose father owns Ferretería Americana, a sort of Dominican Home Depot, had skillfully orchestrated a meeting with de la Renta—“a god on our island, right up there with our founding fathers”—while the designer was vacationing at his arcadian retreat in Punta Cana. Garcia had no formal fashion training—he had just graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in architecture—but he was deeply passionate and brought with him a sketchbook filled with his drawings of women in romantic red-carpet-worthy dresses, which he had been honing since he was a child. “I was curious to hear about his upbringing, his trials and errors, what kinds of colors he liked…” says Garcia, 30, of their conversation. “But he kept talking about this Laura girl. He knew we would complement each other.”

And they did. Though at first Kim was less than thrilled to take this inexperienced kid onto her team—“I was so annoyed,” she says *point-blank—Garcia, who arrived on the final frantic day of preparations for the 2010 resort show, quite literally hit the ground running and immediately ingratiated himself. “I’d give him something to do, and he would actually physically run really fast, which helps before a show,” Kim says. It was not long before the two became a formidable pair, with Garcia, a glutton for glamour, happily handling celebrity dressing, and Kim, a brass-tacks kind of gal, successfully building the more *commercial aspects of the brand.

And yet when de la Renta became terminally ill with cancer, and discussions came up about his successor, the two were passed over for the British designer Peter Copping, an aesthete with a penchant for the ultrafeminine who seemed, on all fronts, to be the ideal candidate for the job. “I made the mistake of underestimating their maturity,” admits Alex Bolen, the CEO of the company, in retrospect.

Kim, who had always wanted to go out on her own, decided that this was the moment, and she convinced Garcia to join her—much to de la Renta’s dismay. “We told him we were leaving to start our own company 30 minutes before Hillary Clinton was scheduled to come by,” Garcia says. “It was poorly timed.”

“I just remember seeing Laura in the corner crying, with Fernando consoling her,” recounts political aide Huma Abedin, who accompanied Clinton that day. “And Oscar telling us, ‘Can you believe it?! These young people are leaving me!’ ”

The two went on to launch Monse, named for Garcia’s mother, in May 2015, and gained immediate acclaim—as well as insta-fans like Amal Clooney and Sarah Jessica Parker—for their loosey-goosey take on men’s shirting. Meanwhile, Copping, who had taken over at Oscar de la Renta in November 2014, on the day of the designer’s funeral, departed abruptly after just 21 months, citing “personal circumstances.”

Fast-forward to a frigid day in March of this year: Kim and Garcia, who were appointed co–creative directors of Oscar de la Renta last September, are seated in their former boss’s office, an airy space in midtown *Manhattan replete with books and fashion photographs that, save for a bigger desk that comfortably accommodates them both, remains exactly the same as when de la Renta occupied it. This is where they start their days; in the afternoon, they meander downtown to the Monse studio—Garcia travels by subway, and Kim, who has a fondness for four-inch heels, by car. They credit their two amazing design assistants for allowing them to sanely balance the demands of both jobs.

A few weeks earlier, they had presented their debut Oscar de la Renta collection, for fall—a youthful, clean-lined update on the house’s refined aesthetic. De la Renta’s signature bold prints, rich fabrics, and *voluminous silhouettes were still very much present, but Garcia and Kim had kicked the exuberance of the brand up a notch with neon *cocktail dresses, racy cigarette trousers, and thigh-high bejeweled boots that Nicky Hilton Rothschild, a longtime client, approvingly described as “next-level insane.” The presentation was ambitious: Kim and Garcia showed their collections for Monse and Oscar de la Renta back-to-back within a stately set inspired, in part, by the Catherine Palace, in Saint Petersburg. (“Right after we returned to the house, we went to Russia with Alex [Bolen],” Kim explains. “We call it our honeymoon trip.”) Many of Oscar’s doyennes were there—Mica Ertegun, Naty Abascal—alongside younger swans like Princess Mafalda of Bulgaria and Princess *Maria-Olympia of Greece. Save for one of the shimmering curtains not opening, which prevented half of the audience from taking in the full dramatic effect, it was an impressive first outing. “We’re happy with it. As for the curtain snafu, it makes for a good story,” Garcia says with a shrug.

Among the many things that he and Kim learned from de la Renta, who was an incorrigible jokester, as well as a fantastic dancer and singer, is that a lighthearted attitude goes a long way. “Oscar always brought a sense of levity when things got too serious,” says Garcia, recounting a few of the shenanigans that occurred in the office, including the time Garcia flipped the script and prank-called de la Renta, pretending to be the socialite Mercedes Bass. “I’ll reenact it one night over drinks,” he promises.

Indeed, it is this learned nonchalance that has allowed them to weather the telenovela-like drama that brought them to this point, much of which they are legally barred from discussing. In brief: Shortly after Kim and Garcia left Oscar de la Renta, they were snatched up by François Kress, then president and CEO of Carolina Herrera, with the assumption that Kim would eventually be promoted to creative *director of the rival house. But Herrera herself was none too pleased, and tensions naturally arose. After Copping left Oscar de la Renta, Kim and Garcia swiftly resigned, returning as co–creative directors and prompting a lawsuit from Herrera that aired what arguably became the world’s priciest dirty laundry in the newspapers. In the end, the two parties settled, and by now much of the dust has, too. “It’s strange not having to talk to our lawyers every day—we’ll have to cook up something new,” is all Garcia, with a crooked smile, will say on the matter.

From left: Political aide Huma Abedin, Princess Maria-Olympia of Greece, model Sasha Pivovarova, and fashion editor Naty Abascal.
Photographs by Emma Summerton, Styled by Patrick Mackie; Hair by Luke Chamberlain for Kérastase; makeup by Mathias van Hooff for Bobbi Brown at Management + Artists; manicure by Gina Edwards for Dior. Set design by Viki Rutsch at Exposure NY. Zoe Kravitz: Hair by Nikki Nelms at Impaq Beauty; Makeup by Nina Park for The Wall Group; manicure by Casey Herman for Dior at the Wall Group; Thandie Newton: hair by Vernon Francois for Vernon Francois at Artists & Company; makeup by Jo Strettel for NARS at Tracey Mattingly; digital technician: Matthew Thompson; photography assistants: Cindy Leaf, Kiri Wawatai, James Ridley; fashion assistants: Diana Choi, Merrit Rea, Madison Parker; Special thanks to pier 59 studios

Laura Kim comes from a family of architects. Her father is one, her grandfather is one, and so is her sister. She considered becoming one, too, but ever practical, she did the math—“It’s five years of school, instead of four,” she notes—and decided on fashion instead. She moved from Calgary to New York to attend Pratt Institute, and landed at Oscar de la Renta while still in school. Alex Bolen, who is married to de la Renta’s stepdaughter Eliza, started at the company the same week Kim did, and he distinctly recalls the moment she caught the boss’s eye: “Oscar loved great buttons, and we had a dearth. Laura said, ‘I think I have some.’ Sure enough, she came in the next day with these amazing handmade buttons, and he was like, ‘What else can you do?’ ” In fact, it was Kim’s mom who had made the embellished passementerie specimens. “She’s good with her hands,” Kim says. “So I sent her all the materials and was like, ‘Send me options tomorrow!’ ” Kim had proved not only her resourcefulness but also her keen understanding of the brand. “These guys know what the company needs,” Bolen says now.

“We know how Oscar would want to push the house forward,” Garcia concurs. “But you can’t do it in one season. You can’t alienate the clientele, which is vast. Rather, it’s a matter of tweaking.” To that end, he and Kim are slowly trying to streamline the design codes, adding an array of sleek suiting and fluid, monochrome cocktail looks. “Oscar never liked over-the-top. It’s funny, right?” Kim says. “His customers loved embellishment, but you would hear him say, ‘I just want to do a clean black column gown.’ He loved simplicity, and that feels right for the house now.” Pushing the notion further, Kim even experimented with a slouchy knit this season—an idea so foreign to the brand that Sarah Jessica Parker described it, in hushed tones, as “a little subversive; nastier, you know?” But paired with a pencil skirt and over-the-knee suede boots, it looked refreshingly practical.

In 2008, in the midst of the recession, the house launched costume jewelry, which has since gone gangbusters, accounting for 10 percent of overall sales; shoes and bags, however, have never been a big category. There are plans to remedy that as well—incrementally. For fall, Kim and Garcia debuted the TRO, a compact purse festooned with a metal gardenia, and there is a waiting list for those $4,990 bejeweled boots. “Our shoe designer hand-embroidered them the day before the show,” Kim recalls. “His wife was about to have a baby, and I was like, ‘Hold it in!’ ” Most progressive, though, is their goal to make their business more environmentally conscious. They worked with Eco-Age, a company that promotes the use of sustainable fabrics and factories, on Emma Watson’s wardrobe for her Beauty and the Beast press tour. And they are consulting with additional planet-friendly firms on strategies to lessen their impact on the environment—including figuring out how to produce Oscar de la Renta’s signature shocking pink, a color that can be ecologically harmful to achieve, in a green way.

“What they’re doing feels like a respectful evolution of the brand,” says the stylist Kate Young, who dressed Selena Gomez for the L.A. premiere of 13 Reasons Why in a copper mini cocktail dress from the fall collection. Still, Garcia and Kim can’t help but feel the enormity—and the oddity—of shepherding the legendary 52-year-old fashion house into the 21st century. “It’s strange that Laura and I are in charge of perpetuating Oscar’s DNA,” Garcia admits. “To be honest, I still think of myself as his lunch grabber—running down to Pret A Manger and telling him what kind of soup they have.”

Source: Wmagazine.com

 

[Benn98]

Just a short update on what Copping is currently busy with.

PETER COPPING
The ex–Nina Ricci designer spent a brief but critically acclaimed period as creative director at Oscar de la Renta. Copping’s stint then led him to an unexpected new chapter—magazines!

How did you end up as a contributing editor at Architectural Digest?
I attended the wedding of Colby Jordan, a fellow AD contributor, last year in the South of France and got talking with Jane Keltner de Valle, AD’s style director. She knew I was passionate about homes and interiors, and she set up a meeting between myself and Amy Astley. Amy asked if I would like to contribute, and I jumped at the chance.

How do you look back on your time at Oscar de la Renta?
Unfortunately, I never got the chance to work alongside Oscar as was planned. I found it a challenge to arrive in a house that was in mourning, and with a family that wasn’t ready, at that point, for change. Another challenge was working with the in-house atelier; it lacked the savoir faire I had experienced in Paris. The highlight was designing a custom evening gown for Lynn Wyatt to wear to her 80th birthday ball. I do not regret my time at Oscar de la Renta at all, and am very proud of the legacy I left, especially the Spring/Summer 2016 collection. It was selected by Vogue as one of the best collections of the season, and for me, it captured the spirit of the house in a fresh and modern way.

Have you stayed in New York?
No, I have spent most of the time at the home in France I share with my husband, Rambert Rigaud. It has been quite a contrast to my life in New York. We were renovating the last part of our house in Normandy, so being there enabled me to oversee the final stages of the work.

Source: Fashionweekdaily.com

 

[reese06]

I love his candidness about his time at the house.

 

[Benn98]

Life After the Runway

By Elizabeth Paton Sept. 24, 2018

Peter Copping

Most recently: Oscar de la Renta creative director, 2014-2016

Previously: Nina Ricci artistic director, stints at Louis Vuitton and Sonia Rykiel

Living in: Paris and Normandy

“For 25 years, I did not stop working on creating collections. In the early years, I did two collections a year. When I left Oscar de la Renta, I was doing six, always in very quick succession. I was constantly on the road for trunk shows and felt like I wasn’t really designing. I felt like I never had time to really think.

But when my time there ended and I returned home to France, it was also an enormous shock to the system. Time on my hands was a very alien thing. And yet it also proved a very positive thing. I didn’t go straight back to Paris; I actually went to Normandy, where my partner and I have a country house. New York to Normandy, can you imagine?

Together, we did something we always wanted to do: renovated our house. I went from eating my lunch at my computer every day to taking time to really enjoy life. My friends and family came to visit. I went to Tuscany and to cooking school for a while. It was great.

I would be more than happy to stay as I am, but financially it wasn’t an option. I became a contributing editor for U.S. Architectural Digest. And recently clients from my Nina and Oscar days have started reaching out, so I have been doing some commissioned work using small ateliers in Paris that can take a single project quite easily. I love doing one-on-one work like demi couture and bridal. That said, it isn’t the real world. So I do have an exciting fashion-related announcement coming later this year.”

Source: Nytimes.com

 

[GERGIN]

Oh this is exciting I sure did enjoy Peter’s tenure at both Nina Ricci and Oscar!

 

[Benn98]

Of all these interviews, I found Peter's to be the most honest. It's all earnest to say oh I'll take time off, travel the world, but there are financial implications to all that and its great that he's verbalising it.

 

[Lola701]

^^
In Alber & Frida’s cases, they left very rich. So they can afford to enjoy their life’s without working.

But yes, his interview is very honest.
They should have interviewed Stefano of Berlin lol

 

[Benn98]

^^
In Alber & Frida’s cases, they left very rich. So they can afford to enjoy their life’s without working.

But yes, his interview is very honest.
They should have interviewed Stefano of Berlin lol

It's not only the money, it's the others mostly singing the same narrative... 'oh the big, bad fashion industry gobbled me up, I somehow got out, and now I'm a better person because of travels, yoga, charity.' Nobody's owning it by saying 'I was greedy for money, status, acclaim, whatnot and in the process burned my fingers.' Lol.

I don't really want to read about Stefano's Berlin adventures, lol, especially considering the circles he moves in. I've heard (and seen) quite enough. Just know this, he's in his element right now. For how long I can't say, because the Berlin Dream isn't a sustainable one. At some point it will leave you both gratified and wanting.

 

[GreyVetiver]

I hope Peter is going to Lanvin!! It’s really sad to see that it’s not even in the schedule this season. Alber’s Lanvin was the reason I fell in love with fashion.

As for Stefano, I doubt he’d return to the fashion circus. As much as I always love his design, I don’t think his Agnona and Zegna sold well. And he’s probably got a lot of money when he left YSL to live in Berlin long term. I’ve seen him in Berlin a few times and he seems to be having a great time there.

 

[Benn98]

Oscar de la Renta CEO: Chinese Traffic in the West Is ‘Up 400% This Year

Ruonan Zheng
November 26, 2018

Oscar de la Renta CEO Alex Bolen invited us to his office, which is home to the business team, the manufacturing and design departments, and personnel for the esteemed fashion house.

“You walk down the end of the hall and there are 25 people cutting and sewing fabric today, and that’s exactly how it was in 1965 when Oscar started,” Bolen said affectionately about the original designer Oscar (also his father-in-law) during our private tour of the brand that’s the “choice of the red carpet.” On the floor where much of the production happens, the famous design duo Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia are busy among samples laid on the floor for their collection that’s to be shown in a mere three weeks.

Bolen has just returned from a trip to China where his mission was to learn how to sell the Oscar de la Renta story to Chinese consumers. The former Wall-Streeter with 14 years of experience in leveraged finance sat down for an exclusive interview with Jing Daily to discuss what he’s observed and why now, during a heated trade war, is the time for the brand to press onward in China.

The company has grown a lot under your leadership over the past 15 years, but the brand didn’t enter China until recently and you still don’t have a boutique there. How much does China currently contribute to the company’s business?

The thing that really has gotten my attention over the last 12 months, is the amount of business we are seeing from Chinese, in our Western stores in London, New York, and LA, our Chinese traffic… is up 400 percent this year.

Our business, generally, around the globe, is based more on local traffic than on tourism traffic—typically we have people come into our stores who are not first-time visitors, whom we have ongoing relationships with, but that has not been the case with our Chinese customers. We are just now developing relationships with our Chinese customers.

We are seeing the impact of the trade war and a slowdown in the Chinese economy, and the Chinese government is also actively trying to boost domestic spending with new policies. Why are you seeing more outbound Chinese travelers now?

On the one hand, the Chinese government is encouraging consumption at home, and there is an increased availability, so we are trying to address this. For example, I was on the phone this morning with a firm specializing in pop-ups for luxury brands in China. I think this a quick way for us to animate our brand locally, and we will need to do that in concert with other things.

WeChat is…also a fantastic way to promote your brand. We have our WeChat channel, but I want to do a mini-program. This way, we can be more commercially engaged with our consumers. I am starting to think maybe some fun watches on the mini-program … is an interesting way for us to do something exclusively for the Chinese market.

Regarding the Trade War, I think for us, perhaps it’s okay because we don’t have that much business in China as of now. So while other people are concerned, maybe this is a good time for us to press. Likewise, with regards to currency, I have no goods that will lose value in China. These swings are temporary.

I will also tell you, in my experience, that the Chinese are probably the savviest in the world with regards to currency swings. If currency swings in Japan, they will go to Japan, if in Turkey, they will go to Turkey. They are smart to do that. Our job is to make sure we are present in Japan, in Korea… places that Chinese are depending upon the currency. But we need to do our job with the Chinese at home, so that when they do decide to go travel, we are on their mind, because I don’t think we are right now.

Oscar de la Renta has a reputation as the choice of social elites in NYC. Do you aim to be in the wardrobe of the Chinese elites, too?

We do have a brand reputation for dressing the social elites. I am not entirely comfortable with that reputation, and I don’t say that’s true, it’s probably in our past. Look, we want to find people who are fans of fashion. I think when Oscar started in the business, it started with social elites, because that’s where the business was, but that’s very limited right now.

When I was in Hong Kong last week, staying at the Peninsula, I was interested in seeing who was in the elevator in the hotel, so I would come down in the morning. There were three women and men, one had a Chanel bag, one had a Balenciaga bag, and the other had Dior. They all had T-shirts, decorated and branded. It’s clear that the Chinese are developing a taste, a discernment, and a desire to consume luxury brands, and we want to be a part of that discussion.

They are not social elites, they are learning about fashion. Look, our goods come in a certain price point, and there’s probably a need for our customers to have a certain element of affluence, and we don’t intend to change that. Yes, we are dressy, but we are interested in streetwear brands. I think that’s an interesting thing for our creative director to consider how might streetwear be expressed within the Oscar de la Renta DNA.

And the bottom line for us is that we are concerned about discounting, and we don’t want people to misperceive our brand. I would rather be small, and slowly tell our story in a bigger way. Then, maybe the people in the Peninsula Hotel will get rid of their other stuff and buy Oscar de la Renta.

You work with JD.com. Do you see this as part of the big-picture strategy?

We think JD and TopLife are important players in the Chinese market, JD in particular, as an independent brand. TopLife we have just gotten started with. We have good momentum, but it’s taking some time to figure out things like how to best ship things from New York to Shanghai, things like quality control, lots of things. To be honest, it’s better to learn about these things in a small scale and then apply them to a large scale, rather than start big and have issues.

What are your clients like in China in terms of style preferences, shopping behavior, etc.?

We are discovering who our customers are in China. The customer we have in Lane Crawford at the landmark in Hong Kong, the “Hong Kongnese” woman, is one customer. The group we have in Chengdu is someone else. In Chengdu, we don’t have a big evening business yet. In Hong Kong, we have a big evening business and the day is less important. The Beijing customer is probably a more traditional customer, and the Shanghai one is a bit more fashion forward. But I am making generalizations, and there is much more nuance to it.

The good thing is that as a family business, we can take a long view. I don’t have to have the [China] business work tomorrow, but we want to be consistently focused on China, and we want to do it right.

Jingdaily.com

 

[LadyJunon]

The Bolens are planning on selling Oscar de la Renta:

Oscar de la Renta Said to Be Considering Sale With Rothschild
The designer brand is drawing interest from would-be buyers and testing the market.

By EVAN CLARK
FEBRUARY 9, 2024, 4:50PM

Oscar de la Renta — one of America’s most iconic designer labels that has dressed numerous first ladies, celebrities, socialites and been there when many brides have said “I do” — is now considering making its own connection.

Three sources said the company is working with the European investment bank Rothschild & Co., fielding interest from would-be buyers and generally testing the buyout market.

It is not clear that any deal will materialize out of the process.

The New York-based company is controlled by the family of the famed designer, who died in 2014 after a long battle with cancer. Gary Fuhrman’s GF Capital Management & Advisors is also an investor, taking what is believed to be a roughly 20 percent stake in 2010.

Oscar de la Renta has long been a fixture on the New York scene and enjoys plenty of high-profile fans, including Taylor Swift, who wore a strapless, light blue floral look to the premiere of her “Eras Tour” film.

But the brand is up against mega players, like Dior and Chanel, which have outrageously deep pockets that they can use to make their impression on well-heeled consumers.

De la Renta is working with less financial backing than those brands, but lately has been able to make the best of it.

Like many others, the company had to cut its cost structure during the pandemic while sales dropped off sharply. But as COVID-19 receded and sales rebounded — revenues are said to have topped $120 million last year — the cost structure has remained lean.

That can be seen in de la Renta’s absence from the calendar for New York Fashion Week, where brands are spending big to be heard above the din. The brand has been designed by co-creative directors Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia since 2017.

The thriftier approach has helped the business operate profitably and put it in a position to test its options.

While there have been some mega-deals in fashion lately — Tapestry Inc. is expected to complete its acquisition of Capri Holdings this year and Kering recently took a 30 percent stake in Valentino — the deal market for smaller designer businesses has been spotty.

Some brands have come to market and found new investors, including Khaite, which saw Stripes buy in with some growth equity last March.

But there are plenty of other brands that have looked and not been able to make their own connections.

 

[rowjellies]

LMFAO

 

[JohannesL]

I am fine if the duo want to associate their brand with Shein and pretty sure H&M doesn't want them, but they ultimately destroy ODLR.

 

[jeanclaude]

Luxury and Shein...like water and oil!

 

[FashionFanatico]

that's the ultimate sign of desperation

 

[LadyJunon]

Monse hasn't been as relevant as it was before the pandemic. Not to mention that industry press has stopped talking about them, so they're not getting attention anymore. The comments are turned off on the announcement post, so their followers left comments on their previous post and they're not happy at all:

 

[tricotineacetat]

Absolutely noone should endorse a brand as Shein, known to deliver the cheapest and fastest of the fast, disposable fashion - by comparison, even Primark looks like more upscale!

 

[philophile]

Wow! I can't believe I used to like and respect Monse some years ago. This is the literal meaning of desperation.

A brand that promised so much in their beginnings ending up like this is just surreal. I really thought this was a hoax.