Business, Design & Style
Launching Your Brand
Lesson time 09:35 min
Laura and Fernando launched their fashion line, MONSE, in 2016. They share how they came up with the aesthetic for their brand and teach you to be proactive and strategic and stay on top of trends when designing your own brand.
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Topics include: Launching Your Brand Name Your Brand Establish an Identity Get Inspiration From Trends
Teach Creative Collaboration and Fashion
Fashion luminaries and Oscar de la Renta creative directors Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia teach you how to bring ideas to life through collaboration.
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[CLASSICAL MUSIC] - When we first met, I think about year-end, I said to Fernando, like, do you want to, like, leave and start our own company? And he's like, nope. And then five years later, do you want to leave? And he's like, nope. And I said OK, fine. And then like six years went by, and I asked him again. I was like, I think it's time for us to start our own company and Fernando's-- - She would ask me basically every week-- - --like, I'm OK. - --and I'm like, I just got my dream come true. Can we give it a second before we do our own thing? - When we realized that everyone looks at us like we are Oscar's kids, Oscar's DNA, that's when I really told Fernando, before it's too late, we need to define our DNA as, uh, Laura and Fernando instead of Oscar's children. - It took a little convincing for me, because I felt I hadn't learned enough to start our, uh, own brand, but like Oscar always said and Laura continues to do with me, sometimes I need a little bit of that push to, um, take the leap. [ELECTRONIC MUSIC] - Monse say is Fernando's mom's nickname. Her real name is Monserrat. Her name is from Spain. I met his mom. And she introduced herself, oh, my name's Monse. And I've never heard that name before. And I was like, that's actually like, a very powerful name. And she's really feminine, and she's, um, very pretty lady, but there was something masculine about the name that I really loved. So when we started our line, Fernando's like, should we call it Penelope? I'm like, no. - And then-- - Monse at one point was Penelope, - --and you-- - Then the second name was-- - Um, the dog we love, Phoebe. - Phoebe. But then that was too much like the "Friends" character, so we moved on from that. - Yeah. And then I was like, what about your mom's name? Because I love how it's written too. And-- - It's like, five letters. It's like-- - Yeah, and it's very like a rectangle. - Short. Yeah. - Fits into a nice shape. It's good for branding. And I love his mom, so we named it after his mom. - The biggest lesson that we can teach about the name is if it doesn't feel right, it's not right. It's very instinctual. You have to follow your gut. It's going to be something that you're going to be hearing for the rest of your life. It has to ring true to you. [ELECTRONIC MUSIC] Our aspirations initially were just to make sure that we didn't look like a mini Oscar de La Renta. It was important for us to make sure that it looked like we had fresh new ideas about how we thought people should wear clothes right out of the gate. - And we wanted to make sure people understand that we're not just Oscar's assistants. So we actually went through-- I think we sketched the first collection like, five times. And every time we had a new set, we'll show people. We'll have like, editors come in, like, friends come in. And they're still like...
About the Instructor
As founders of fashion line MONSE and creative directors at Oscar de la Renta, Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia have transcended their industry with a partnership that’s more than the sum of its parts. Now they’re teaching you their secrets to creative collaboration. Learn to cultivate strong business relationships, navigate the creative process, and join forces with others to improve the workplace—and the work.
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Laura Kim & Fernando Garcia
Fashion luminaries and Oscar de la Renta creative directors Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia teach you how to bring ideas to life through collaboration.
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