Roksanda Ilinčić: the fashion designer’s colourful journey through Belgrade, Britain and Brazil
Roksanda Ilinčić has achieved that most select marker of success: a mononym. Since 2005, her name has been indelibly associated with her ethereal dress designs – by turns fluid, fantastical, functional and feminine – which have won her fans in some seriously high places, from Cate Blanchett and Carey Mulligan to the Duchess of Cambridge. Remember the billowing International Klein Blue gown worn by Beyoncé on the opening night of the London leg of her tour in 2023? Of course you do. And, yep: that was Roksanda. But what of the interior life of this visionary, one whose creativity is, day-to-day, translated into the stylistic expressions of others? That’s what Matt Gibberd was interested in when he interviewed the Belgrade-born designer for the latest episode of the podcast.
“I first met Roksanda in 2006. We were selling her flat in King’s Cross, which was unlike anything I’d seen before: a brooding space with cast-concrete worktops, a black resin floor and mirrored lightwells. It had a subterranean lap-pool that was completely black, like a cave, where one could imagine Bruce Wayne practising his backstroke. Roksanda had recently shown her first collection at London Fashion Week and garments dangled enticingly from rails in her workspace.
“Some 18 years later, I’ve come to meet her in her studio in the East End to record this podcast. As before, her latest collection is on display, only this time the hanging rails have multiplied by a factor of a hundred. The colours are even more vibrant. Roksanda is no longer simply a name; it’s a brand with a global following.
“I loved finding out more about Roksanda’s life story. She talks passionately about the importance of nature in her life, from the old quince trees in her grandparents’ garden to the inside-out living of her favourite Modernist houses in Brazil.
“She describes how the birth of her daughter was like a portal opening up, which gave her new confidence and a sense of perspective.
“She tells me about how she’s managed to bring architecture into fashion, and why she believes that clothes are there to provide shelter and protection in the same way that a home does.
“Thank you so much for listening, as always, and I really hope you enjoy it!”
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