When Martine Rose last showed in Italy – as the guest designer of Pitti Uomo in January 2023 – the London-born designer set out to celebrate life lived on Florentine streets, fusing ‘80s-infused Italian tailoring with that of her own, subculture-led design handwriting. Making her Milan Fashion Week debut this season – closely following the Prada show in a venue so close it was in spitting distance – Rose wanted to unbutton the prim and properness associated with the Italian fashion capital.
“With Milan being the home of polished and beautiful product, I wanted to work against that and see where I really find beauty which is often in the frayed edges; in the cracks,” said Rose backstage. It started with the venue itself. Her shows back in London are often rooted in place of cultural and personal significance to Rose, from North London community centres to her own daughter’s primary school. The Milanese warehouse proved something of a blank canvas, strewn with psyedo rave flyers stamped with work pulled from the brand’s archive. “I like making a space look like things have happened in them before they arrive,” said Rose.
Her largely street casted troupe came disguised in latex noses and tatty, troll-like wigs, offering a new sense of intriguing ambiguity to the Martine Rose muse. They came clad in a heady mix of skintight footy tops, rave-ready shell suits and kinky suit trousers with leather crotches. Lads trotted in sexy pencil skirts, while a series of the rugged womenswear looks were fashioned from motorcycle elbow pads. “It’s not about gender, it’s about enjoying clothes whatever and whoever you,” said Rose.
As models trudged through the space with caps bearing “Local Hero”, it was clear Rose doesn’t need to be on home turf to make serious noise.
Photography courtesy of Martine Rose.
