
Add Roksanda Ilinčić to the list of European fashion designers casting a spotlight on noteworthy female textile artists.
She was drawn to Françoise Grossen for her monumental sculptures made of knotted and braided ropes — what they evoked and represent.
“There’s something very earthly, very female about it. You know, women sitting, braiding, braiding hair, braiding dresses, braiding garments,” she enthused backstage before the show. “That kind of tactility, craftsmanship, and something quite domestic, but taken to a totally different level, is something I absolutely love.”
Ilinčić gave a tightly braided spine to a terrific bias-cut gown in brown silk and framed the bustier of her glossy panniered finale dresses with looser braids of a velvety Neoprene.
She also employed delicate eyelash fringe to decorate an LBD, and draped errant threads across her pillow-like bags and over the godets jutting from her evening gowns. Some of them became a little tangled in the breeze blowing through the Natural Dye and Wellbeing Garden of the National Theatre, the venue Ilinčić chose because of her passion for Brutalist architecture.
“I grew up with it,” said the Serbian-born designer, concrete slabs jutting at all angles behind her. “I think it’s stood the test of time.”
Ilinčić also used her spring collection to flex her muscles in daywear, at the request of her devoted clients. “They’ve been asking: They want me to offer them everything for seven days a week from us. So I’m branching out,” she shrugged.
And so she did her version of a beige safari jacket, punctuated with black patch pockets, and a shirtdress, with short, jutting sleeves and a jumble of ticking stripes.
She also paraded a killer black pantsuit with an hourglass jacket that wouldn’t look out of place on a Dior runway. She knotted a silk scarf over the shoulder for some added color, pattern — and for art’s sake.







