Attending an After Party in NYC
Worn On: 9/11/24 // New York City, NY
the commentary
It isn’t all that surprising that Taylor would tap Monse for some of her looks. The two designers at the helm, Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia, first met when they were working together at Oscar de la Renta - one of Taylor’s longstanding favourite brands. The pair still serve as Odlr’s creative directors. As a result, Monse’s clothes retain some of the femininity and classic looks of OdlR, but honed with a sharper edge.
Kim and Garcia’s Fall 2024 collection for Monse was inspired by UFOs and AI technology, taking futuristic scenes of alien invasions and rendering them in a more classical, historical artform: the tapestry. To me, I read this as a beautiful merge point of the imagery on Tortured Poets. Specifically of course the imagery from “Down Bad” (which, based on streams, seems like a healthy choice for a third single).
The bustier silhouette, the short pleated hemline of the skirt, and the buckle details which both I and Vogue reviewer Laia Garcia-Furtado tapped as “straitjacket-inspired” feel very pulled from the aesthetic world of Tortured Poets.
I don’t mind the print overload between the bomber, bustier, and skirt. In fact it sort of feels like a symbolic reference to how fully immersed and, well, down bad she was in that situation. Overwhelmed and fully engulfed by the feelings of a love bombing artfully translated as an alien abduction. The tall boots also tie in to her current style preferences but, as you know, I’m more of a minimalist heel gal myself. If it were me I would have been tempted to do a long trench (perhaps even leather, to tie into the buckle details and to go Matrix-y with it) and glittering sock booties for a cleaner and sparklier party-worthy finish. A Vivienne Westwood orb bag or even a necklace would also have been great here.
the clothes
Feature Photo by Robert Kamau via Getty Images