For her SS24, Martine Rose was inspired by English community centers

To understand Martine Rose one would have to be a Londoner. To such an extent the British designer's work is rooted in her city's scene that it seems almost alien to those who live elsewhere and must read, between the lines of her looks, references to scenes and situations of life in the English capital that are then references to her many communities. According to what Rose herself told Hypebeast after the show of her latest SS24 collection held yesterday, the two big references were the English community centers, spaces dedicated to local community activities, and of the youth who gather there to dance - not, therefore, a decadent Berlin club, but an intimate and genuine atmosphere, the one from which, as is often the case in Rose's shows, a familiar and specific language that is the very essence of her own identity and success. At the show, which was meant to sublimate the language of the neighborhood communities found in London's community centers, the aloofness and haughtiness of the fashion we are accustomed to was entirely lacking: if the Olsen twins serve green tea, almond milk, and fresh seasonal fruit at The Row shows, here there were bottles of Stella Artois and Irish Tayto chips-the adherence to reality was complete and devoid of any affectation.

Martine Rose always looks to the street, like her mentor Demna, to return to tell its story - with less irony and nostalgia than her master, but also without trying to take the everyday and turn it into something "for the rich," her fashion is an expressive work, it has no space for the rapacious luxurification of working class codes. There is only ennobling, elevation and celebration of an archetype, affectionate storytelling of the present and, in short, a language that those who want to can make their own but which was born to include and not exclude, even if at first it is not obvious to understand it. For the collection that went on stage yesterday, Rose explored these codes by reproducing the oversize and wear and tear of used clothes, expressing their singular personalities in such a driven way as to tell, through the matching of the clothes, extraordinarily rooted in reality, everyday whimsy and attitudes, but also expressive of more general cultural changes, reinterpreted in a known and recognizable horizon that therefore becomes a kind of lens with which to look at the rest of the world. English community centers are places where people go to dance, say, in an atmosphere that is not the muffled and upscale atmosphere of the exclusive club - they are places where neighborhood communities, united by the same national and cultural background, often united by simple proximity meet and contaminate each other reaffirming their origins but also bringing updates to the "old" customs with the inevitable turnover of generations. These are places where the beauty or desirability of a dress or outfit is not about prevaricating and conquering others or escaping to dream realities but about expressing oneself as an individual and as part of a group. The dimension is familiar, relaxed but also profoundly original since it meets more genuine needs than remarking on one's social status.

En bref, Rose est ainsi capable de raconter son propre monde et ses transfigurations, ses exemples de changement mais aussi son attachement au passé, tout en racontant comment les changements culturels d'une réalité beaucoup plus vaste se reflètent en elle - c'est là que réside son universalité, pas toujours facile à traduire. Cette capacité à raconter le grand en observant le petit, un processus d'induction (un mot qui dans son sens de "faire entrer" évoque le désir, exprimé par Rose dans l'interview de Hypebeast, de «faire entrer les gens» dans sa propre imagerie) qui est bien mis en évidence par la présence de sa très populaire collaboration avec Nike, une sorte de pont entre le petit monde sentimental que Rose continue à raconter et la plateforme plus large de la culture pop que la créatrice continuera à conquérir cette année avec la collaboration à venir avec Clarks et celle, déjà passée, avec Stussy. Il n'y a pas de forçage - il s'agit d'un type de communication réaliste qui parle du progrès et de l'évolution d'un coin délimité de la réalité qui reste néanmoins un miroir et une miniature de tout le reste de l'univers qui l'entoure. À bien des égards, Rose reste peut-être l'héritier le plus fidèle de la vision de Demna et des premiers Vetements, mais aussi le créateur capable de lui donner la réinterprétation la plus propre et la plus originale.