Martine Rose moved to more elegant surroundings this season, with a set design resembling a haute couture salon decorated with wooden chairs and white curtains with ruffles that covered the walls and columns inside the St. Marylebone Jobcentre in London.
“I really wanted the models to enjoy posing and to have fun and for it to be charming because people are charming, aren’t they?” said Rose, who worked with street-cast models for her show on Saturday.
She swapped her signature oversized silhouettes for shrunken, cinched pieces that had an undertone of awkwardness. Somehow it was still sexy, in the vein of Mills & Boon bodice-ripper romance novels.
Her characters, some of whom sported long Brian May-esque wigs, wore cropped leather jackets with biker pants; denim shorts with the pockets hanging out, and dresses with a faded tartan pattern.
There were two-in-one trousers with the top half resembling jodhpurs and the bottom nodding to soccer socks, and apron skirts with ruffles that matched the set design.
Rose said the collection was about inexplicable beauty. “You don’t know why you find something beautiful or sexy, but you just do,” said the designer. “I wanted people to be sort of swept up in a bit of a dream, but [the designs] are still real. It’s a sort of push and pull,” she said.
As always, Rose swung the spotlight on the local community. One floor down from the show space, the designer set up a street market and invited a handful of locals to take a corner and sell their T-shirts, magazines, antiques and accessories.
“The show space was an opportunity to celebrate all of the creative people in London and everyone that contributes to the cultural life and dynamism of London — and that needs celebrating,” said Rose.
After the show, guests including Romy from band The xx and Simone Rocha roamed around the market, which also had a bar and an area serving pizza.
