Of all the hundreds of people I have seen front row in my long fashion career, this seemed significant.
Roksanda Ilincic had given her nine-year-old daughter Efimia and all her school class the most sought after seats in the house to see Monday’s show at the designer’s favoured venue: the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park.
After the parade of roomy and colourful clothes, I asked these young girls in their navy plaid check dresses what they thought: “We need to be taller,” was the chorus.
But it will not be long before they will grow up in more ways than one – and how will Generation Z see fashion, in the light of the Extinction Rebellion protests and a feeling for pre-loved clothing?
Roksanda’s own vision is very clear: it is about herself – a tall woman, interested and involved in art. Backstage she talked about her passion for artistic fashion.
The designer has always been an artist of colour – vivid but unusual shades such as clementine orange and ginger were used in conjunction with the beige that started the show.
In her own image, the shapes were bold, dashing even, but also warm as the red and pink outfits were walked on an orange carpet. It was striking against a grey sky, without being too blatantly tropical.https://www.instagram.com/p/B2eBJvlniOp/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=dlfix
“As usual, I wanted to combine architecture and art with fashion,” the designer said. “And I think that what is happening in London at the moment is one of the positive things coming out of so much negativity.”
The Brexit saga has many repercussions for the fashion industry and its designers, but Roksanda remains positive.
“It’s wonderful what is happening in London right now: a merge of different artistic disciplines – like art, fashion, music, literature, poetry – everything is somehow lowering the boundaries and becoming one. I think that’s a very positive thing coming in this negative time and that’s what I wanted to present in the collection: a gallery connected with architecture, art – and fashion.”
After an opening series of lean, tailored coats, mostly in shades of cloud grey, the designer blew up the shapes into almost abstract volumes.
“I’m known for, and I love, big canvases – huge volumes and the possibility to just play with them,” she said. “But I mainly concentrated on the easy daywear that you saw at the beginning, moving in a tailored direction for me. The pieces are layered and modular so you know you can take them off and get all those jackets without sleeves. So it’s very transitional – you can wear it in many different ways.”
“I would like to mention Mary Weatherford,” she continued, referring to an LA artist whose large paintings using sponged paint on linen canvases with neon coloured tubes.
“It was a lovely way to explore somebody’s interpretation of one of my favourite artists and to make my own as well,” she said.
