Roksanda Ilincic lapis blue dress with coral piped bow, from the Spring Summer 2013 collection
The Pre-Raphaelites revolutionised design and applied arts, and their art has provided inspiration for fashion designers. Even more fundamentally, there seems to be a special connection between Pre-Raphaelite art and fashion itself. These convergences will be explored by fashion designer Roksanda Ilincic and curator and editor Penny Martin in a debate chaired by Donatien Grau, with a special reference to the context of British fashion.
Roksanda Ilincic is a fashion designer with a unique but innately feminine approach to luxury fashion. Her eponymous label, first shown at London Fashion Week in 2005, has fast become a go-to for women who desire an elegant but unmistakably modern approach to dressing. With a bold use of colour and a signature take on shape, Roksanda’s designs effortlessly blur the line between day and eveningwear, creating chic wardrobe staples. Roksanda has won the BFC New Generation Award and BFC Fashion Forward Award, and January 2012 saw the brand shortlisted for the BFC/Vogue Fashion Fund. Roksanda Ilincic has also recently been nominated for the BFA Red Carpet Award.
Penny Martin is Editor in Chief of The Gentlewoman magazine. Previously she was chair of Fashion Imagery at London College of Fashion and Editor in Chief of SHOWStudio.com from 2001-2008. Penny has also curated several exhibitions including When You’re a Boy: Men’s Fashion Styled by Simon Foxton at The Photographer’s Gallery, London and is a contributor to numerous magazines and newspapers such as Fantastic Man, W and The Independent.
Donatien Grau is an academic and critic. He is a contributor to the Times Literary Supplement and has taught at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, the Sorbonne and Cornell University.
