Martine Rose is Clarks' first guest creative director

British-Jamaican designer Martine Rose, famous in the industry for the unconventional style with which she advertises her eponymous menswear line and the avant-garde approach with which she designs garments, combining tailoring and street style, will be the first guest creative director for Clarks. She announced this herself to WWD, revealing in an exclusive interview what to expect from this surprise collaboration. 

Three designs will land on her catwalks in June, during the Martine Rose show, and will officially go on sale in March 2024. «There has to be something familiar so that you can pick up on the riff. We've actually tried to keep it more classic, so it's very simple, there's black, oxblood, and snakeskin,» Rose anticipated, recalling the deep connection between Jamaica and the British footwear brand. «Clarks is something so intrinsic to British culture and obviously Jamaican culture because it's very important in Jamaica because of the Commonwealth,» the designer added. «There are a couple of British brands that are very important in Jamaica because Britishness is a sign of quality and if you take it out of context it takes on a life of its own, like a myth.»

According to the designer's suggestion, the upcoming show will be the biggest she has ever presented, the perfect way to launch her collaborative debut with Clarks, whose CMO, Tara McRae, commented, «Martine was high on our list of guest creative directors to collaborate with because of her unconventional approach to design and development and her British-Jamaican background, both of which are key to our brand.»