Martine Rose is exploring the act of undressing for SS23.
For Martine Rose, acting on an impulse is the frontier of inspiration this season. Staging her show inside the archway of the Royal Vauxhall Tavern on Sunday evening, latex black curtains brought the hazy space into a transformation of sexual impulses. The main feeling behind this season? The act of squeezing into clothes, brought by a hurry of a drunken hookup after the office on a Friday night.
A touch upon Rose’s process of creation is taking certain staple pieces, like the everyday chequered shirt, and elongating it to bring dimension, whilst cinching cobalt cargo trousers, and creating a workwear silhouette - with a certain level of spice. Accessories, such as earring holders attached to actual earrings, bring a discourse of dramatic irony that the designer likes to revel in. What is serious and what is ironic? The answer is in the grey space between. As models emerged power-walking from the latex, black cropped bomber jackets are cropped at the hemline (whilst stretched in the arms) and fitting leather trousers with a cheeky key attached to the zip, embody the adventurous urge of sexual exploration, with the risk of getting caught.
The tension, restriction and sensuality, brought on with a masterfully fearless eye for construction and fit, is felt across the collection by techniques of ruching and gathering, borrowing from BDSM accessories that enlarge the feeling that Martine Rose wants us to connect with our risqué side, blurring the lines of whether it is actually us trying to fit into our own garments, or rushing to get into someone else’s.
All in all it was a nostalgic ode to London - not the high society, aristocratic, classist version but rather an amalgamation of ‘80s subcultures - Punks, New Romantics, Teddy Boys - who didn’t give a fuck about the repercussions of debauchery. They lived in the present and they gave the finger to institutions.
