Since the inception of her eponymous brand in 2007, British-Jamaican fashion designer Martine Rose has always referenced her lived experiences in the UK. Having grown up in Croydon, Rose spent much of her adolescence in the company of her grandparents, who migrated from Jamaica in the ’50s.
London is a fashion zeitgeist full of buzzy, young designers, most of whom eventually disappear from the scene. What, then, gives Rose such longevity in a landscape obsessed with newness? From music subcultures to the sartorial leanings of her Jamaican family, she has merged her diasporic culture with London’s melting pot of different tribes and archetypes.
She displays this essence by using familiar style codes and adding twists to silhouettes, proportions and prints. Fans of Rose’s work attach themselves to her intimate and creative recounting of reality, celebrating the beauty
