Standout Moments: Fall 2023 Pitti Uomo collection, Kendrick Lamar wearing a full Martine Rose look at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards, The Hillbillies collab, being named guest creative director at Clarks, and winning British Menswear Designer of the Year at the 2023 Fashion Awards
Although Martine Rose’s profile has grown over the last few years, her design proposition hasn’t really changed. She’s consistent, using her British-Jamaican background and South London upbringing to guide her collections, which feel anthropological and specific. She typically mines ‘90s club culture, hooliganism, dancehall, and UK B-boys when designing her work, but makes it feel fresh and desirable season after season.
Just take earlier this year, when Rose was named guest designer at Pitti Uomo, an achievement in menswear that usually indicates a brand is culturally relevant and commercially viable. She leaned into the refinement that Florence and Pitti Uomo are known for, but without losing her very cool point of view or her humor. She showed tailored boiler suits with a dry cleaning tag on the sleeve, coats with rounded, hunchback-esque shoulders, sporty jackets styled over classic collared shirts accentuated with a tie, and a bubblegum pink, Michelin Man–inspired puffer jacket with matching faux fur details. Are these looks for everyone? No. But that’s the entire point. And it’s the reason why artists like Kendrick Lamar, who wore a full Martine Rose look from that collection to the Grammys, and Rihanna, who recently wore that pink puffer coat while running around Tokyo, gravitate to her pieces.
Brands want to align with her as well. Just this year she’s released collaborations with Stüssy, and Clarks has brought her on as its first-ever guest creative director—she designed three pairs of shoes for the brand at her London Men’s Fashion Week show this summer. Her collaboration with Nike that kicked off in 2019 is also still going strong. A blue and purple colorway of her Shox-inspired slip-ons inspired by soccer goalie jerseys debuted during her Pitti Uomo show and was later seen on Kendrick’s feet at the Grammys. And while she didn’t land the position, her being an alleged front-runner for the Louis Vuitton men’s artistic director position, which went to Pharrell, shows how significant and influential her brand is. So no, Martine Rose hasn’t changed, but the industry is catching up to her brilliance. —Aria Hughes
