Who Should Replace Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia at Oscar de la Renta?

We’ve known about Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim’s impending departure from Oscar de la Renta for a while now, as the pair announced their plans to move on from the brand last September.

“With a heavy heart @tokibunbun and myself want to let the world know we are completing our time at @oscardelarenta next February and after are putting all our focus on @monsemaison ,” Garcia wrote on Instagram at the time. “We have spent half of our lives working with the incredible teams there plus the loving de la Renta family. It was a decision that came with much contemplation and while it is sad it is also exciting for all to begin new chapters next year. Laura and myself have nothing but magical memories and incredible gratitude to everyone at the company. Our final collection will be Fall 2026 next February and hope you all love it!”

And yet, since then, little has been said about who will replace them. Which feels strange given how much the fashion press usually loves to hypothesize about who will next take the helm at the world’s top houses.

Then again, the brand has been a little under-the-radar lately. Although they still make the occasional red carpet splash, they don’t really advertise anymore and they haven’t put on a runway show as part of NYFW since the pandemic. The brand’s CEO, Alex Bolen, doesn’t see the point.

“What anyone who doesn’t buy the clothes thinks about the clothes, I just don’t care,” Bolen said in an interview with The New York Times in December. “If critics love them and our customers hate them, we have failed. And I think all of the commentary from people who actually don’t pull a credit card out can be a distraction to our teams.”

“Thus far, I’m deeply unimpressed with the ability of influencers to move the needle,” he continued. “It’s much more about old-school stuff: sales associates who have relationships with customers, who are trying to recruit new customers. My solution was to talk straight to the people.”

This might explain why the media, in turn, has been so disinterested in who will next take over at the house once Kim and Garcia depart.

But we’re interested! And we’ve got some ideas.

1. Brandon Maxwell
We’re big fans of Maxwell’s over here. His designs feel glamorous and extremely American at the same time. His sweet spot is more day wear than evening, but the Upper East Side ladies who shop at Oscar de la Renta don’t go there looking for gowns alone. And we feel confident that Maxwell could turn out some gorgeous gowns (and cocktail dresses) if given the opportunity.

Maxwell isn’t showing at NYFW this season, which is worrying for the future of his eponymous brand, but maybe any (hypothetical) struggles at his own label are just the universe’s way of opening him up to bigger and better opportunities. And if he wanted to do both, one imagines the cash and clout he would gain from working at Oscar de la Renta would empower him to do so.

2. Stéphane Rolland
If Bolen’s true focus is appealing to Oscar de la Renta’s existing clientele, one imagines he might look to a designer like Stéphane Rolland, whose glamorous gowns and elegant day wear are likely already hanging in the closets of Oscar de la Renta’s top clients. 

Or, if he wanted to find someone in New York to do the job, there’s something to be said for Lela Rose or even Sally LaPointe taking over. Both designers feel very much “of that world” and would probably be adept at maintaining the legacy of the house without feeling the need to push it, its CEO, or its customers outside of their comfort zone.

3. Joseph Altuzarra
Sticking to New York-based designers for a minute, but pushing things a little bit further in terms of design chutzpah, one could imagine Joseph Altuzarra doing quite well at Oscar de la Renta. His designs are always quite luxurious and his overall sweetness and charm would likely serve him well with the brand’s couture clients.

4. Ashlynn Park
Her collections for her brand Ashlyn are very day-focused, but this is New York. What do you expect? And there is something very sophisticated about her silhouettes — the coats and jackets she showed for Fall 2025 were lovely.

5. Simon Porte Jacquemus
Business seems to be booming for Jacquemus’s eponymous label, but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t relish the chance to work at Oscar de la Renta as well. Rumor has it he was on the shortlist for the Chanel job before it went to Matthieu Blazy. We heard he even designed an entire collection for the brand as a test. And the overlap between the Chanel client and the Oscar de la Renta client feels significant.

6. Olivier Rousteing
True, the Balmain client under Rousteing existed on the complete opposite end of the fashion spectrum from the Oscar de la Renta client, but given that de la Renta himself famously held the reigns at Balmain from 1993-2002, there would be a certain poetry to bringing Rousteing over from Paris to run Oscar de la Renta. It would certainly be a great angle for all the press coverage such an appointment would inevitably generate. But, of course, Bolen couldn’t care less about such coverage, so it seems highly unlikely that this would actually happen. And even if he did care about the fashion media narrative around his brand, let’s be honest, Rousteing would be a wild choice.

7. Erdem Moralıoğlu
You can’t get much more ladylike than Erdem. Moralıoğlu just has such a wonderful way with color and fabric. And his designs are always chic. Never tacky. Not even a little. And that feels very on brand for Oscar de la Renta. Essential, really.

8. Francesco Risso
Of course, if Bolen wanted to take a big and potentially tacky (but in a good way) swing, he could always pluck former Marni designer Francesco Risso from his current post at Uniqlo. Okay, technically he’s at GU, but that’s just Uniqlo by another name (and under the same corporate umbrella). Honestly, Risso would probably be a terrible choice for Oscar de la Renta, but it would be fun to see what kind of kookiness he got up to while he was there. 

Of course, if Risso is in the mix, just about anyone could be: Christopher Kane — what’s he up to these days? Julien Dossena — Oscar de la Renta by way of Rabanne? That sounds interesting. Or they could get really weird and just appoint Rick Owens and Rei Kawakubo as co-artistic directors. That would really f*ck sh*t up.

Or maybe they could try giving John Galliano another chance. He famously did that little three-week guest stint at the brand in 2013, which was supposedly such a huge success, and was in talks to join on a more permanent basis before negotiations fell apart in 2014 over money. Of course, if money was an issue back then, one can’t imagine it would be less of an issue now. Indeed, given the current state of fashion, one imagines that cost is going to play a key role in whoever Bolen hires, which means he probably won’t be looking to any already-famous designers.  

9. Someone we’ve never heard of from one of the top houses
The not-yet-publicly-known head of ready-to-wear from some top brand could be good. But which brand would it be? Someone from Schiaparelli could be cool. Or Thom Browne. Or maybe Pierpaolo Piccioli’s Valentino (definitely not Alessandro Michele’s Valentino). Even someone from Dries van Noten could be cool. Second-in-commands are often ripe for poaching and can turn out to be even bigger stars than the people they once worked under. Just look at Phoebe Philo and Matthew Blazy.  It would just need to be someone who actually wants to work at an independent brand.

10. They could promote from within
Given that Kim and Garcia were former longtime employees of Oscar de la Renta when they were named creative directors in 2017 (following Peter Copping’s brief stint), one could imagine Bolen might choose to just promote from within this time around. At least then he would know exactly what he was getting in terms of temperament and talent. And someone who already works for the company would know how to design for the existing customer and would probably be less likely to push for things like runway shows, advertising campaigns, or media engagement, knowing from the beginning that it wasn’t on the table anyway. And there’s something nice about rewarding someone for years of hard work and dedication by giving them a shot at the top job when the opportunity becomes available. Sure, the game of fashion designer musical chairs is exciting and all, and moving top designers from one prestigious post to another certainly generates a lot of media attention, but what makes for a good article doesn’t necessarily make for good clothes and that really seems to be the only thing Bolen cares about.

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