Martine Rose has done with Clarks what Clarks has done with British footwear history for 200 years: appropriated, twisted and brought back something that looks familiar but isn’t quite. Coming Up Roses, her SS25 collection for the brand, is the closest thing to a dress shoe after a night too long: the structure is still there, but the dignity is in question. And that’s precisely the point.
Ever since Rose was announced as Clarks’ first Guest Creative Director, the question was clear: how was the designer going to digest a legacy built on respectability? Her answer: by stretching, twisting and leaving the seams in the air. It’s the difference between the sartorial perfection of Savile Row and the controlled chaos of a second-hand flea market; between Derby orthodoxy and a Derby with a sole that looks like it was ripped off at the last minute.
The keys to the collection are in the details: leather that looks ripped rather than cut, a sole that peels away just enough to suggest something is about to fall apart, ‘mock croc’ textures that owe more to the dance floor than a country club. The Heel, for example, takes the most nondescript lounge shoe and turns it into an architectural fetish, with a stacked heel that could have come out of a Brutalist sculpture. It’s the shoe of an office worker who has left her desk to party and never looked back.
And then there’s the campaign. Photographed by Mariana Maltoni, it features dress shoes in a context where they should never be: the beach. Because what’s more subversive than sticking a pair of Clarks in the sand and carrying on like it’s business as usual? The models – a mix of friends, collaborators and local characters – reinforce the idea that formality, in reality, has never been so serious, or even so important, or so essential.
Coming Up Roses is an exercise in cultural appropriation well understood: Clarks lends Martine Rose its pedigree and she, in return, gives it a social life.
Collection is already available at Martine-Rose.com & Clarks.com, and selected retailers.
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