Nataal talks to the famed designer at GTBank Fashion Weekend 2019 about colour, form and the art of elegance
Though she may have earned her stripes as a fashion designer, Roksanda Ilinčić ’s designs have always demonstrated a cross-disciplinary approach. Her savvy eye for colour - SS20’s colour wheel spans greys, pastels, and warm coral and ochre tones - nears that of an expressionist painter. The formal complexity of her work, a knife-edge balance of strict (a-)symmetries, pleats and gathers, and billowing volumes, exhibits architectural rigour. The latter point’s almost a given, though: prior to enrolling on Central Saint Martins’ MA programme under Louise Wilson, she studied architecture in her native Serbia.
In the 14 years since grounding her namesake label at London Fashion Week, she’s created a new benchmark for confident, astute, feminine dressing, a brand of style that needn’t bare flesh to command a room’s gaze. It’s no surprise, then, that her work should find such favour in Nigeria, as the turnout at the designer’s masterclass at GTBank Fashion Weekend in Lagos proved. Of the attendees of the talk, entitled “Making Elegant and Modest Dresses Feel More Exciting”, many wore immaculately tailored aso oke dresses and Gehry-esque head wrappers. They perfectly mirrored the brand’s values of vibrancy, architectural chic and confidence, proving that a woman who dresses with modesty in mind is by no means a shrinking violet. After the talk, we caught up with Roksanda to learn more about how her vision translates to a Nigerian audience and her particular angle on working with colour and form.
Mahoro Seward: Is this your first time here in Nigeria?
Roksanda Ilinčić: Yes, it's my first time in Lagos, but I've spent time elsewhere in Africa before.
MS: And what are your initial impressions of the dress here?
RI: I think it's incredible! I really didn't expect to see so many women who are so proud of what they wear, paying attention to all of the smallest details, from the hairpieces to the earrings to the nails. It's really inspiring to see.
MS: Do you see any parallels between how you approach dressing your woman and the way that women here dress?
RI: I must say, and I'm not just saying that because I'm here in Nigeria, but Nigerian women really get who the Roksanda woman is - they share the same DNA. She dresses for herself, she's confident, she stands out in the room, but in an elegant way. So all of those codes that I have, women here really seem to get.
MS: You trained as an architect, which is evident in your work, and I think that resonates with a certain architectural sensibility that you see here.
RI: Yes, absolutely. You see it in the sleeves, the drape, the headdresses! Women here have been dressing very architecturally for a very long time, long before I started designing, and I'd been looking at those pictures, thinking how amazing the sleeves were, which is something that’s very much a focal point for me. I think there's a strong chemistry there, for sure.
MS: Has African dress ever been an active source of inspiration for you?
RI: Well, I'd been looking a lot at national costumes, but mostly those from back home in Serbia. There are some similarities with what you see here when it comes to the sculptural elements of the garments, and then, yes, I was looking at pieces you find here, but not in such a direct sense. But, because there are certain connections between the two, I think that people are sensitive to the points in common. That said, I’ve felt really inspired by what I’ve seen on this trip, so that could all change!
MS: Focussing more on your work, specifically on your SS20 collection, and the idea of making modest dressing exciting, it'd be interesting to learn more about your approach to the topic.
RI: Well, I never really approach it as modest dressing, per se, I first learned this term much later in my career. What I wanted to do was create dresses for the women who, like me, didn't necessarily want to show so much body in order to say something. On the contrary, they want to maintain a sense of mystery, and perhaps cover a little more.
At the time, there weren't very many designers making that type of dress, ones that were quite voluminous and concealing. But also, as an architect, I wanted to create a canvas for my shapes and colours. And to do that, especially with the sleeves, you have to have a lot of fabric, you need something to play with. There were many elements that came into it, and I started to get an incredible response, and it's also how I like to dress. It's something that I love, and I think that's how you should create, not thinking too much about planning, but following your intuition more.
MS: Yes, your architectural background certainly comes through in the pleating, concealing and innovative layering of colours. But the reason I wanted to touch upon modesty is that, being in Nigeria, it's quite a traditional value. As is elegance. But with so much on the market geared towards sexiness, striking a balance between the two can be quite difficult. How does your vision of a woman marry with that which African women hold of themselves?
RI: Incredibly well, I think. It's kind of the same thing, really. I'm using many elegant and classic elements in my work, and then I mix them with a London vibe, which is a little more wild, outside the box, fixed on breaking the rules and doing things that no one wants you to do. So it's almost like you have this basis of elegance, but it's merged with this London craziness. And I think that's the real essence of my work, my designs are classic but they are also pushing fashion forward and creating something completely new.
MS: Your use of colours and geometries also resonates with the vestiary culture here. Could you tell us more about how approach colour? What’s your thought process when thinking of what colours to work with in a collection?
RI: Colour is quite an integral part of Serbian culture. We have a strong summer, and, as you see here, the sun really brings out the colours in their fullest: they're louder, brighter. So colour is just something I grew up with and was familiar with from an early age. When I went to London and started my brand, I knew I wanted to bring that to it. But I also realised that there wasn't much colour at the time. Which was great for me, as it allowed me to bring something completely fresh to fashion.
Photography Adedolapo Boluwatife
Words Mahoro Seward
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Published on 23/11/2019