Club Monaco is becoming a major force in the see-now-buy-now game. Just a few days after Tommy Hilfiger and Rebecca Minkoff staged their Spring ’17 shows in Los Angeles, the sophisticated and nicely priced Ralph Lauren–owned retailer filled its Fifth Avenue flagship with hundreds of flowers and a jam-packed room full of buyers and editors who could purchase the collection on the spot. This wasn’t the case at Club Monaco’s first show, which took place at Grand Central last September; this time, customers were invited to shop, too.
The strongest pieces were the floral midi-length dresses and skirts, which captured the romantic mood of the moment without feeling overly referential. The first look in particular stood out; the creamy rose-printed skirt looked like it had been lifted from the ’20s, not the ’70s or another heavily mined decade. The Club Monaco team, led by creative director Caroline Belhumeur, also explored zeigeist-y head-to-toe floral prints, layering an antique floral trench over a matching jumpsuit and teaming a black floral bomber with matching pants. (They made that bomber for men, too, FYI.) The jury is still out on whether the Club Monaco customer wants such a full-on look—the label is more closely associated with ladylike, business-casual pieces—but with the added exposure of the NYFW event, they might just feel inspired to start experimenting.
