Career woman. Thrill seeker. Rule breaker. That is the Monse woman.
Inspired by the world existing between fairytale and reality, the Monse Fall/Winter 2018 collection took the typical 1950s housewife and turned her a modern-day feminist. A strong signature of the brand is their unique photoshoot locations. This time, the Monse team rounded-up the lone model, the clothes’ racks, and a simple white backdrop and ventured to none other than Coney Island. The sophisticated balance of nostalgia and fun assisted in the story-telling of the ever-influential Monse girl.
Since the 50s, women have come far, conquering restrictions and establishing rights that women should have had from the beginning. In light of the struggles many women continue to face, including the gender pay gap and unfathomably-high statistics of sexual violence victims, the Monse FW18 collection highlights women’s empowerment and equality.
“We felt a sense of irony in creating these sensual but masculine clothes inspired by a time where women had very little say,” says a member of the design team. Cut to those women today and they are most-likely wearing what they wished they had worn back then: men’s clothes that created the feeling of power while keeping a feminine-silhouette.
Women can feel even more powerful than a white male with the help of Monse’s high-waisted trousers and over-the-shoulder blazers. Thankfully, gone are the days when women were pressured, and often forced, to only wear dresses, skirts, and blouses. The collection sang praise of the womenswear evolution with a large, much-loved dosage of jeans and pants paired with oversized jackets and sweatshirts. Monse took your boyfriend’s clothes to a whole new level and we are so here for it.
Plaid fabric was the star of the collection, varying between graph check and glen plaid in shades of brown, as well as tartan and buffalo check in classic red and black. To mirror the sought-after irony of the collection, select pieces were printed and lined with vintage clips of instruction manuals. Cheers to that.
Celebrating influential and diverse women around the world, the collection flirted with conservative silhouettes and turned them into abstract works of art. Formfitting mid-length dresses were given seductive slits and shoulder-bearing sleeves; cardigans were worn alone, revealing bare skin beneath the plunging neckline; and traditional blazers played with feminine shapes as they fell off the shoulders and hugged the waist.
Born from prints reflecting the former era and silhouettes emulating the current day, the pieces were brought to life in front of the Island’s popular B&B Carousell. The collection’s heavy menswear-vibe mixed boxy and masculine styles with cool-girl attitude. When creating the overall feel of the collection, Monse’s design team took major inspiration from the films This Boy’s Life and Revolutionary Road, leading to its unshakable muse: the reconstructed housewife.
With the help of Fabien Constant and Sebastien Perrin, #monsegirl Erin Wasson played the part of a working woman in need of some fun. After breaking some rules and breaking into a closed Coney Island, she finds just what she’s looking for, and with her motivating energy, she lights up the park. May we all live like the Monse girl.
Written by Kelsey Tucker
Images and video courtesy of Monse