February 24, 2025 |
The artfully minded Roksanda looked to the work of the late sculptor Phyllida Barlow to help guide her AW24 collection. Barlow, who passed away in 2023, made towering works made from a tapestry of found materials, like cardboard and polystyrene, and envisioned collapsing structures concocted from mismatched, multi-coloured fabric. Her presence was felt in more ways than one, as soundbites from the artist’s last ever interview played over the show’s soundtrack.
It was Barlow’s tactile approach that fed into Roksanda’s utterly gorgeous dresses and swollen suiting this season, which played out like a textural buffet. There was plenty here that will soon enter the wardrobes of the designer’s intellectual cliental, like gowns and headpieces drenched in ginormous paillettes in yellow, black and brown (fabulously so-wrong-its-right). These walked alongside frocks in fringe-spiked raffia that made a delightful crunching sound as models walked and woollen coats that surprisingly migrated into faux fur at the back.
Throughout, multicoloured fringing engulfed painterly-printed column dresses and halterneck tops, all while a parade of sculptural dresses that closed the show came constructed from felt off-cuts from previous seasons. These will undoubtedly dress darlings of the art world, but the dresses themselves were museum worthy.
Photography courtesy of Roksanda.
