British designer Martine Rose, known for her unique, twisted approach to clothing that draws on the subcultures and countercultures of her native London, created her first A at Pitti Uomo 103, the menswear fair in Florence. I didn’t know I was going to be a guest designer. /W 2023 collection. Yet, at her presentation last night (January 12, 2023) at her Nuovo in central Mercato, she felt the unique energy of the Italian city permeate the whole. “When I was invited, Florence influenced everything, even subconsciously,” she said.
Before the show, Rose said she started preparing guest spots by thinking, ‘How can we do what we do in London and Florence? In her hometown, she chose a series of quirky locations to display her collection. It doesn’t follow the usual menswear calendar and instead presents collections when designers are ready. Last season, London Fashion took over Vauxhall’s dingy latex her Curtain nightclub during her Week S/S 2023. Friends and longtime collaborators Rose calls her “London family.”
Martine Rose 2023 A/W at Pitti Uomo 103
(Image credit: courtesy of Martine Rose)
Some of them have traveled to Italy with Rose, but the bulk of the cast for this latest show was scouted from the streets of Florence, from people working in local bars, clubs and restaurants, and calcio fioren. I even found a player from the Tino football team, along with other Italians. Farther and farther by Rose’s team. “A lot of them had never done it before, so I’m very proud, and I think I honored Florence the way I wanted,” Rose said after the show. “We wanted it to feel like a true collaboration between Italy and London.”
The show space – a shagpile rectangular runway with mirrored columns designed to evoke a nightclub – was built in the outdoor loggia of the Mercato Nuovo, a historic marketplace in central Florence ( Locals were crowded, hanging from nearby windows, as Rose had hoped (a glimpse of the neighboring streets). Rose said she chose a location that reflected the spirit of Florence, as it was a long-standing commercial center and home to the city’s long-standing good luck charm, the Fontana de Porcellino. It was jokingly mentioned that it was also once a place of “public spankings”, “pietra della scandalo”, for those who could not pay their debts.
The collection itself is one of escapism, said Rose. Much of the mood came from the shimmering sound of Italo Her disco, a musical genre that exploded in Italy in the 1970s, before being adopted into the British club Her scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s. . The garments themselves feature lurex-infused trousers, oversized shearling her jackets, and Western-style fringes (created using the technique of shredding fabric, “self-fabrication, not trimming”) that are “of the era.” It reflected a ‘flashy nightclub environment’. Slang and overdyed denim. Florence’s rich history of tailoring draws on her ‘Buy One Get One Free’, which fuses her trousers with new wave-inspired pinstripes in slim silhouettes, blazers and tailored her trousers into one garment. is reflected in the playfully titled jumpsuit.
(Image credit: Courtesy of Martine Rose)
A more quirky inspiration came from clothes originally made for children’s toys. Rose said she was drawn to the way such items “never perfectly fit” the dolls they were made for. As such, silhouettes were often distorted and contorted, held in shape with stiff elements of padding, or dramatically oversized, like a fluffy puffer jacket nipped at the waist in bubblegum Barbie pink. said the twisted silhouette was also meant to make you feel disoriented when you’re in a nightclub. “I think I find beauty in things that are not easy to find beauty,” she said.
Backstage, surrounded by a phalanx of dressing rooms, friends and family, Rose admitted she was overwhelmed. , said he was looking forward to “celebrating hard” after the show (according to the show’s theme, the afterparty will be held in one of Florence’s oldest nightclubs). As we walked down the streets where locals continued to gather around the twinkling set after the show, the palpable buzz was proof that Rose’s clear vision, so far rooted in her native London, translated. was.
martinerose.com (opens in new tab)
