Martine Rose’s debut campaign as guest creative director for Clarks spotlights the ultimate comfort of the subversive, inaugural collection first seen at the designer’s Spring Summer 24 runway show. Photographed by Sharna Osbourne, Coming Up Roses finds the Martine Rose clan inside a series of bedroom vignettes, constructed for our viewing pleasure.

Inspired by archival Clarks advertising circa 1980, where beds conveyed the supreme comfort of Clarks shoes, this season’s MR possé lounge in retro bedsits, ready for their close-up. Emblematic of the ultra-cushioned Martine Rose + Clarks designs, intimate interiors strike a balance between reality and artifice as quietly subversive characters enact the pleasures of private bedroom pastimes.

Lounging on, and under, the duvet, we are introduced to the full Coming Up Roses offering where Martine Rose redresses four perennial silhouettes from the Clarks archive. Nodding to Austrian artist Erwin Wurm’s ‘Convertible Fat Cars’, The Oxford, The Loafer and The Sandal are taken to new, squidgy proportions but retain their classic flair. Imagined in brazen pink, brown and green snake-effect styles, plus oxblood and black colourways, they are made from 100% recycled nylon fabric uppers, and featuring breathable leather linings.

The classic Oxford redresses ‘smart-casual’ with its cushioned silhouette and recycled nylon upper, infusing athleisure into the sartorial staple which now has a flexible rubber outsole and padded toplines around the ankle. Similarly, The Loafer’s bodacious makeover includes a chunky 20mm platform sole and inflated heel. The Sandal does away with the passé crackle of velcro, instead featuring three adjustable straps with magnetic fastening.

‘The collection was about comfort and this overblown feeling of softness and squidginess, so it felt easy and natural to create that feeling around bedding. Subconsciously, personal spaces have become a motif for the label that I’ve used for the collections and in various ways, and Coming Up Roses is about that intimacy that I enjoy pulling people into. There’s something so completely unique about personal space, a generosity to being invited to someone’s house - it breaks down the hierarchy. It’s all about engaging with people, using memory and familiarity as a way of connecting. Clarks is such a familiar household name, everything from start to finish has been with the broadness of the mainstream in mind."
- Martine rose

CLARKS + MARTINE ROSE
'COMING UP ROSES'

MEMBERS RESERVATION: 15/02/2024 1-9PM (GMT+8)

LAUNCH: 16/02/2024 10AM (GMT+8)