February 14, 2024 |
This February, come face to foot with the Martine Rose x Clarks collab at Selfridges Corner Shop. Centred around the release of a highly-anticipated, highly audacious link-up between lauded London designer and heritage shoemaker – dubbed Coming Up Roses – Rose is the label’s first guest creative director and what she’s created is sure to keep you on your toes.
Bringing the bedroom to the shop floor, the Corner Shop display harks back to archival ‘80s Clarks ads that likened the lush comfort of its shoes to the bliss of being in bed. Recreating the familiar bedroom interiors of the campaign images themselves, set designer Polly Philp configures each into its own archetype. Evoking the unique messiness of a teenage bedroom, one alcove is plastered with archival Martine Rose and Clarks graphics the way an adolescent girl might deck out her walls with boy band posters or vision boards. Another room conjures the kitschiness and eclectic, floral-obsessed aesthetics of a grandma’s boudoir. There’s also a space that mimics an imagined, retro motel room that a touring musician might stay in.
While you’re invited to sit back and relax on one of the cloud-like beds upon entry, it is still a retail space, and with that in mind, much of it recalls the “nostalgic childhood ritual of the Clarks foot measuring service” – a core memory for the award-winning menswear designer. “There was something so happy about going to Clarks as a kid, the special day with mum or dad having your feet measured for new shoes,” Rose says in a statement. “We wanted to pay tribute to that shared, collective experience so many of us in the UK have.”
Transporting what’s usually private into the public sphere, it’s a totally immersive installation that places puffed-up versions of The Oxford, The Loafer, The Sandal and The Torhill Hi on a pedestal. Each style is a core classic of the Clarks brand, but Rose warps and emboldens them, moulding them in her own very swollen way, inspired by Austrian artist Erwin Wurm and his Convertible Fat Cars. Styles arrive in faux snakeskin – burgundy or green – and classic jet black. The pop-up also features a limited-edition T-shirt, a four-piece shoe care set and a variety of posters for you to bring the experience back to your own home.
“Clarks is such a democratic brand; I love that it’s for everyone and it’s so expansive. It would be out of step to create something removed from people’s everyday experience,” says Rose. “We looked at the idea of the bedroom and added personal elements to the shop setting – which can often be quite sterile. We’ve brought familiar touches to the space, so people feel comfortable and hopefully feel the resonance of an emotional memory too. The playfulness and humour of the project – we can all be in on it.”
The Martine Rose x Clarks pop-up at The Corner Shop at Selfridges is open to the public now until March 2.
