Putting the Sports in Sportswear
Review of Monse Spring 2025 Fashion Show
By Mark Wittmer
THE COLLECTION
THE VIBE
American neo-sportswear. Business meets pleasure.
A star-studded Spring 2025 runway show (guests included Paris Hilton, Tiffany Haddish, and Coco Rocha, to name just a few) saw the Monse design duo of Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia inject a further sense of playfulness into their distinct practice of reconsidering American sportswear and men’s tailoring for a discerning woman of unconventional yet effortless elegance.
Many of the looks achieved this by referencing sportswear in the literal sense of sports, reconsidering rugby shirts, collegiate jackets, and prep school athletics. But the best moments came when the references were more subtle and fundamentally structural, like the reworked blazers or the pleating that referenced tennis skirts.
It can be easy to forget that the design duo also serve as the creative directors of Oscar de la Renta, the brand where they both got their start, but here they let this other role as the inheritors of the master of American glamor shine through a little bit more than usual, serving up a few shimmering dresses felt red-carpet worthy. Nonetheless, these star pieces still maintained the angularity and edge to keep them on the Monse side of things, incorporating unexpected design details like belt closures on the back or lacy trim, the latter of which felt like a sublte nod to the expanding underwear-as-outerwear trend.
THE DIRECTION
THE WRAP UP
Though in some moments the playful athletic references felt like a separate idea alongside, rather than holistically thought and worked into, the collection, it’s nonetheless still exciting to see Monse take their balance of refined tailoring and playful provocation in bright new directions. The idea of sportswear – sophisticated yet comfortable and flexible garments that meet women’s daily needs – is perhaps more relevant than ever. Monse shows that this idea isn’t going anywhere, and it takes a fresh American perspective to take America’s most significant contribution to fashion history forward into its next evolution.
