Martine Rose Is Clarks’ First Guest Creative Director – WWD
Tue 23 May
Martine Rose is British shoe manufacturer Clarks’ first guest creative director. The three shoes she’s designed will debut during her upcoming men’s show in London in June.
“Clarks is something that’s so intrinsic to British culture and obviously Jamaican culture because it’s huge in Jamaica because of the Commonwealth. There’s a couple of British brands that are really big in Jamaica because Britishness is a sign of quality and you take it out of context it takes on a life of its own, like a myth,” Rose told WWD in an interview, sitting in her north London studio as she readies her upcoming men’s show in June, where her designs for Clarks will debut on the runway and on sale from March 2024.
As a community-focused designer, the decision to team with Clarks was an instant “yes” because of the company’s history dating back 200 years, when the local Quaker community stepped in to financially help bail out the founders, Cyrus and James Clark, which resulted in the opening of a new school, theater, library, open-air swimming pool and town hall in Somerset.