[MUSIC PLAYING]
For our first Monse show, I wasn't planning to have a show,
but Fernando really wanted a show.
And he kept meeting up with people.
I'm like, Fernando, why are you meeting up
with all these people?
He's like, I want a show.
I'm like, I told you we don't have a budget for the show.
And he just wouldn't stop.
And he actually put a show together
with very little money.
We had to ask everyone.
We showed them the sketches and ideas
to get them inspired and excited.
And asked for a big discount.
And say, like, oh, we're going to be big in three years.
And everyone came on board.
[APPLAUSE]
So we had a cute little show with very little money.
There's many answers to a question of, what
is the point of a runway show?
From a sales perspective, you know,
you're creating content of how you market your brand
and sell your product.
But, you know, selfishly, from an artist's perspective,
a designer's perspective, I have the ability
to create a story through the clothes that we show,
and the girls that we cast, and the music
that we play depending on a mood that I'm
in during the last three to four months.
So that, to me, is very rewarding
because unlike architects who have to wait for a year
or two years more--
10 years.
To see something beautiful realized,
it's a little bit more fast-paced.
We get to live a little movie every three to four months.
It's also creating an experience
for our clients to feel what we're trying to express.
To feel it through the music, the clothes, the casting,
the way we set up the space.
And I think it's something really
important to sell our clothes.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Casting is a really fun process
that I get myself as involved as possible in.
Because not only do you have to look for a girl
that, when she tries on the clothes,
you believe that she is interested in wearing that.
That is--
But they also add a lot to the look too.
Like, you know, sometimes we have
one model that we see everything on throughout the collection.
And then you put it on this girl with, like, dreadlocks,
and she has piercings, and we were like, oh my god.
Like, it just elevated the look, she looks cool.
Or we sometimes throw it on a boy, and it's a girl's outfit.
And I'm like, whoa, it looks amazing on guys.
It's really eye-opening, the casting part of the job.
It invigorates.
It's sort of jolts all of us back
to life when we see it on the people that
are going to be photographed in your work of art
for the rest of history.
They are going to be a part of you.
So the marriage between the outfit and that person
has to be genuine from every angle.
When we see our design team, like, our assistants
and designers get excited when they
see the outfit on that person that they like,
we pay attention.
And it all boils down to the final lineup.
It really sometimes becomes alive all of a sudden.
Us too.
Yeah, we're like, oh, wow, that looks amazing.
The first time we had the idea of casting boys for the Monse
show, you know, we had been working forever, casting girls.
And we are very accustomed to you fine-tuning that process.
But we had never cast male models.
And you can just imagine the red faces all around.
I mean, those male models must have not understood
why we were reacting that way.
We were all red.
They were just like, what are you doing?
Do you need me to try this on?
And they're, like, yeah, try this on.
And they'd take off their shirts and everybody in the team
starts to, like, run away out of embarrassment.
And those-- those are fun moments
and create really fun memories.
And we look forward to seeing our team get
excited for who we put, you know, their hard work on.
You're selling almost like magic.
Yeah, and it's very palpable when
the girl or boy who puts it on believes in that outfit.
I can see, in the corner of my eye, that girl or boy
checking themselves out in the mirror.
And that's when I'm like, OK, this
is going to be a good walk.
I can tell that they like the outfit.
So when they, like, strut and they
feel empowered wearing what you just put on them,
that is something very necessary for the people
to see and feel so that they buy your clothes.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
We rarely develop sets for a collection to be shown.
Its more about choosing the location.
There's just nothing more believable than finding
a location that can relate to your collection.
It's existing.
It's better than anything any set designer can emulate.
And because Laura and I happen to like
connecting to things that are existing
and real, as opposed to other designers who do love
to create these fantastical atmospheres,
it just works for us.
Even though we have dabbled in doing a set or two,
it's just much more convincing for the work
that Laura and I do to put it in real places, where people could
potentially be wearing them.
And luckily, we're in New York City,
where there's so many beautiful and interesting space.
Clothes have to dictate the runway, set, or location.
It just has to be as convincing of a marriage as a model
wearing an outfit that she would genuinely want to buy.
The last collection for Monse, it
was very clear that we were in a high school mindset.
And the shoot came around, and our CO
was like, so where should we do the shoot?
I'm like, a high school.
Like, where else?
Like, it has to be full-throttle this concept so
that it's clear to everybody where our heads were
for those three or four months.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I don't have that much background in music.
But we work with this amazing sound producer.
His name's Sebastien Perrin.
And we worked with them for almost as long
as I can remember.
45 years.
I guess.
But we tell him what we're working on, our inspiration.
We show him our clothes.
How we feel personally about what's going on.
And he brings us tracks.
And lot of times I'm just, like, oh my god, it's beautiful.
It's actually moving my emotions towards my clothes.
Like casting, it really adds something to the collection.
He paints a picture around that artist or that sound,
with ideas that I never thought of.
And it adds to the experience so much more.
I have always had an obsession with wanting
to do a show to the "Edward Scissorhands" soundtrack.
And nothing that we have ever designed fits the part.
But it's in the back of my mind since I started this industry.
And one day, I'll get to live the moment
where I hear the Winona Ryder vibes and the Tim Burton
sensation.
And see clothes going down the runway.
But Sebastien might cut that.
But, yeah, no, that's an unfulfilled
dream that I have had.
But it's actually such an important part
of putting the collection together.
Like, we would go to Sebastian's apartment
after work, like, two days before the show at 10
PM just to listen to music.
Like, it's almost not a work thing.
It's a passion thing.
The lighting is so important.
Even at your dinner parties, lighting is important.
You first have to figure out where you're showing,
depending if there's natural light
or you have to bring in other kind of lighting.
I think that master at lighting was Alber.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
It sets were very, very clean.
Yeah, Alber Elbaz.
Very industrial.
His lighting was incredible.
It just transformed the mood of the room.
He was somebody who I admired and learned
so much from in the showmanship aspect of my job.
It would be a deceptively simple dress.
But if it's hit the right way with the light, you're moved.
Our production designer for Monse
for the show before the pandemic,
he showed me the mockup as we were
about to do the first rehearsal.
And the girls were coming out, and the boys were coming out.
And I looked at the lighting and I saw everything,
and I could tell every detail.
The idea of the room being so bright
brought me away from the sex appeal that the clothes had.
Immediately after I said that, he cut everything in half.
And then it just became sultrier.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Doing guest lists actually takes so much work.
He does all of it, but.
Well, no, you just have to--
I mean, it is really important who you're inviting,
who you're sitting in front of, who you're sitting next to.
And it's an ever-changing list.
Like, it shows about us more than,
like, oh, I got to sit next to a really famous person.
But it's also about, oh, like Laura and Fernando
relates to this artist, this singer, this actress.
And respects them enough to come to our show, things like that.
I think it's important to have that experience, if you're
buying our collection, or if you're
writing about our collection.
And there's, I love weddings, something that Laura hates.
Yeah.
And seating charts, to me, are so fun.
Oh my god.
I mean, it is like a wedding--
Totally.
Putting a show together.
And you do have to also think about,
does this person want to be sitting next to that person?
So it always evolves.
And it always changes.
And we always have to dance with them,
make sure everybody's happy.
And then on top, Once It's approved,
a list of people that are going to come,
then I make sure that whoever they're sat next to
and their angle that they're going to take are smart ones.
You don't put the blogger in the middle of a runway show,
because he or she won't capture the full walk.
You have to think of where that person's going to be seated.
As opposed to an editor who is just
there for the experience of looking
at our new creative process, and not necessarily posting it
on Instagram.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Oh, you guys have fun?
Yeah.
It's funny because we live in the world
that we live in, see the beautiful clothes that we
see every day.
But I forget sometimes that those 15 minutes
that those people get to come and see our
show two times a year, they tap into.
But Laura and I see every day and touch,
or at least hear the fabric that we
are so accustomed to hearing and seeing.
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