5.3 Martine Rose Beyond the Cannon
Martine Rose
Martine rose is an established fashion designer, with a Wikipedia, however her most influential work for Balenciaga has completely flown under the radar which I would argue is her biggest achievement that she has accomplished throughout her career so far.
Personal life
Martine Rise was born in London with British Jamaican Heritage. Rose grew up in Croydon in South London, something that she constantly represents through her work. (1) https://neuneumedia.com/family-ties-in-conversation-with-martine-rose/ often taking inspiration from the working class such as football, pubs and the Croydon club scene. She is also known for taking inspiration from her Nurse mother and her Black Panther father, connecting with her roots in Tooting and Jamaica.
Career
Martine rose has collaborated with many other Brands not just Balenciaga. She has also worked with the likes of Nike and Supreme on successful collaborations again creating garments with her unique view on clothes and adding her own twist onto already established brands.
Martine Rose also has her own Label that has become extremely popular and creates new collections each year for London Fashion week. Her collections are also recognised by vogue.(2) https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-2026-menswear/martine-rose .
Awards
Martine Rose is also successful in terms of awards. She won British Menswear Designer of the year award at the fashion awards in 2023. She was also names GQ Germanys men’s wear designer in 2022. For her work at her own label. On top of this she was nominated for the BFC men’s wear designer of the year in 2019 as well as being shortlisted for the LVMH prize. Overall, Martine roses individual awards are extremely impressive for the fashion industry. However, none of these awards were for her own work and none of them are for the extremely influential work she did in collaboration with Balenciaga. This is also an area were Roses wikipedia is under representing her as the only award mentioned is her 2022 mens wear of the year award.
Education
Martin rose’s education consists of a foundation course at Camberwell school of arts. She then went on to attend Middlesex University for a BA in fashion design. However it is also argued most of her education came from Londons deep sub cultures during the 90s which helped shape her view on the world of fashion. Rose also interned at Arena Magazine and worked in night clubs. This is how she was able to fund her first fashion show during London Fashion Week in 2007.
Under Representation
Martine Roses time working at Balenciaga was met with huge success, being able to create multiple collections. Each surpassing the last. This era of Balenciaga marked the revival. From a falling house to a the most talked about high fashion house in the industry. Helping pave the way for the change in silhouette how clothing fits the body for Every other high fashion house and even just fashion in general. With brands like 032C, Jordan Luca, Givenchy. Just to name a few in the high fashion space However the influence spans much larger than just this the influence span it street style and more accessible fashion brands such as mainstream brands like H&M and Zara also taking huge influence from the Collections that Martine Rose helped to create. During her time at Balenciaga’s sales increased from around $350 million to over $2 billion during her time working with the house. Before Demna and Roses era working at Balenciaga the house was failing. Quickley falling into becoming just a fragrance brand which is the route that many failing High Fashion brands turn to. After Christobal Balenciaga’s death in 1972. Balenciaga was sold to Kiering the group which also owns Gucci and Valentino in 2001. It was in this period ere the brand lost its visual identity it was in this period that Balenciaga hired multiple people to turn the brad around such as Alexander Wang however apart from some small successes nothing really stood out until Martine roses work.
During her time at Balenciaga, she worked with critically acclaimed Designer Demna Gvasalia. Who was creative designer at the house while Martine Rose worked with Balenciaga. Demna is who gets pointed at for the whole success of Balenciaga in recent times, getting all of the recognition. Which of course in his own right Balenciaga wouldn’t be the brand it today without him. However, the influence Demna’s work has had on the industry is astronomical. How ever this is where Martine Roses Narrative feels under represented. By no means to down play Demna’s achievements because with Balenciaga, is own Brand Vetements and his recent work at Gucci. His influence is arguably still greater than that of Martine rose. However, Rose doesn’t get nowhere near the recognition for these achievements that she does. For example, most lists of the top ten most influential fashion designers of the past 10 years, Demna is in all of them, (3)
https://www.apetogentleman.com/most-influential-mens-fashion-designers/ which rightly so. However, none of them have any mention of Martine Rose. And considering that he is mainly getting Praise for his time at Balenciaga. Hear is where their argument for Martine Rose being seen as under Represented. Rose was able to shift the silhouette from the skinny chic/ understated look heavily pioneered by Dior and the work of Hedi Slimane, to an overstated and oversized look.
There are multiple reasons for this been the case. 1 of which maybe her background the world of fashion is a predominantly white industry, bar a few. And especially in the high fashion space. Causing a lot of Ethic Groups to struggle to make it big in the Industry. With an Industry of predominantly white male designers and even spanning to other aspects of the Industry with 78 percent of models being white, its an extremely hard industry to break into.
(6)vhttps://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2016/may/10/survey-finds-that-78-of-models-in-fashion-adverts-are-white
Other Black creatives in the industry
Other creative in the same field that have had to ver come the same struggles as Martine Rose include the likes of Edward Eninnful, ex editor and chief of British Vogue. Due to his own struggles with in the industry he mad either his mission to make a change in the industry with multiple campaigns to champion under represented with in groups such as LGBTQ colour and disability (7) https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/article/section/arts-culture/edward-enninful-redefining-vogue-redefining-visibility/.
Bibliography
(3) https://www.apetogentleman.com/most-influential-mens-fashion-designers/
(6) https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/article/section/arts-culture/edward-enninful-redefining-vogue-redefining-visibility/.
(4) https://www.britannica.com/biography/Slimane-Hedi
(2)https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-2026-menswear/martine-ros
(1)https://neuneumedia.com/family-ties-in-conversation-with-martine-rose/