Key takeaways:
- The rise of streetwear and a wider acceptance of its style codes has brought new attention to Martine Rose’s 12-year-old label.
- Rose has maintained credibility among core fans while embracing commercial opportunities, including collaborations with Nike and Napapijri and a consulting gig with Balenciaga.
- Financial difficulties have compelled the designer to explore alternatives to catwalk shows, a feature that is now part of the brand DNA.
Judging by the amount of press that Martine Rose has received over the past 18 months, one could easily mistake her for London fashion’s newest darling — but the Tottenham-based designer is anything but. Rose, now 39, was part of a wave of emerging menswear designers initiated by Lulu Kennedy’s MAN, which launched London's first menswear-dedicated day in 2009, and laid the foundation of what is now London Fashion Week: Men’s.
Alongside JW Anderson, Christopher Shannon and Matthew Miller, Rose eschewed the Savile Row-informed style of more established brands to include references to streetwear, subcultures and utilitarianism. Rose’s nod to 1990s rave culture, resonated with consumers who shared the same nostalgia for dressing as an expression of musical affiliation, and with those who were hungry for a creative output unfiltered by commercial aims.
“Everything was very provocative, with a lot of different layers and references to subcultures that I was very familiar with,” Lulu Kennedy, founder and director of Fashion East, recalls of her first encounter with Rose’s work in 2007. “I guess I felt a sense of recognition.” Kennedy featured the designer’s collections in Fashion East for three seasons, from Spring/Summer 2011 to Spring/Summer 2012.
Industry accolades followed. The designer received the NEWGEN MEN award in 2014 and was shortlisted for the LVMH Prize and the ANDAM Prize in 2017. Yet even after a decade the label maintained a sense of nascency that has been difficult to shake off.
“She was ahead of her time,” says Kennedy. “She has been doing that over-exaggerated Balenciaga silhouette for 10 years, but the time is right for her now.” All the original signature elements of Rose’s work — including short torsos, flared trousers, oversized denim, droopy shoulders, bomber jackets and sportswear references — have become part of a shared fashion language now spoken by everyone from Louis Vuitton to Dior.
When Rose launched her line in 2007, she was supported by a £1,500 loan from the Prince’s Trust, a British charity that offers financial and mentoring support to young business owners. Over the next eight years, the label was picked up by around 10 stockists, including Gr8 in Japan and Browns in London, but financial stability was a long way off. “I was always selling just enough to not completely throw in the towel,” says the designer. “There was a season when I didn't have any money at all, but I knew I had to carry on, so I just did one look,” continues Rose, thinking back to her SS15 collection.
The shift came shortly after, when Demna Gvasalia, then newly appointed creative director of Balenciaga, hired her as a consultant for the brand’s menswear line. The job brought confidence, validation, steady cash flow and added 140 addresses to her own stockists list. It also led to high-visibility collaborations with brands like Napapijri and Nike. “She finally had the money to take it big and promote [the brand] on a bigger scale,” says Kennedy.
Collaborating comes naturally to Rose, who has also teamed up with Been Trill, Timberland and CAT. While she stresses the importance of finding synergy between the brands and isn’t afraid of being choosy, the financial gains are undeniable. “It has been a very beneficial way of growing my business,” she says. “When you get it right, you are plugging into a company that is far more established than yours, not just in terms of finance but in terms of their ability to produce products and their visibility.”
Rose has disregarded the seasonal fashion calendar, showing when she feels like it, or debuting collections via short films or lookbook presentations instead. When she does show, it tends to be in unusual settings — a covered street market, a community climbing gym and most recently a North London cul-de-sac. While this has become part of the creative output expected by the designer, it was initially dictated by financial considerations.
“The impact of a catwalk show is enormous on an emerging brand, but I knew that I didn't just want to make something and take it to the showrooms,” says Rose. “Even if I didn't have the money, I had a story to tell — I just had to find a clever way around it.”
Economic constrictions led Rose to explore new meanings of communication that gave her the freedom to involve a more diverse audience. Rose’s collections are never designed with a specific target market in mind, and this has allowed her to reach across ages and genders. “We are definitely selling 30 to 40 per cent of the product to women,” says Lee Goldup, menswear buyer at Browns.
While Rose’s catwalk collections have remained distinctive for their charming awkwardness and unexpected references, she hasn’t been afraid to introduce entry-point pieces like jerseys, T-shirts and hoodies, which have allowed her to reach new consumers without compromising her aesthetic. “There is that little bit of commerciality, but the pieces in her line are always very recognisable,” says Goldup.
One of the points that Rose likes to make is that she didn’t have a clear business plan or any inclination for it. Even the short business course offered by the Prince’s Trust turned out to be “deflating”. “I didn't get into fashion because I was into business,” she explains. “Now, [there] is a commercial option to be a designer, but it definitely wasn't a commercial option when I was young.” Her strategy was simple — start small and perfect a category before moving onto other products, something she had learned at her previous label, LMNOP.
“It took me years to learn what I was doing, but I was able to make loads of mistakes off the radar and really grow,” she says.
Rose’s growing commercial success has also brought a change of attitude. “I really stopped resisting the stupid rebellion against business, and I started learning about it — it’s creative in a completely different way,” she says.
She is passionate about manufacturing too, especially as the threat of a no-deal Brexit looms nearer. While 30 to 40 per cent of the brand is still manufactured in the UK, Rose is planning to move some of her warehouses in central Europe and shift more of her production to Italy. “Brexit is potentially catastrophic, so we just have to make some really horrible decisions about not being able to use our small factories here that have supported us for years.”
To receive the Vogue Business newsletter, sign up here.
Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com.
More from this author:
Lessons about the Chinese shopper from the country’s largest discount app
