“Le Corbusier’s buildings always had a social aspect – beautiful but practical, functional spaces that wouldn’t cost so much, that many people could use,” says the Serbian designer
This article is taken from the Autumn/Winter 2022 issue of AnOther Magazine:
“I was visiting [Brazil’s capital] Brasília, the city Oscar Niemeyer designed, and went into a brutalist church with incredible blue stained-glass windows. I happened to be there on my own and that moment will stay with me for the rest of my life. There is something about brutalism that speaks to me and it’s possibly nostalgia for back home [in Serbia]. In Belgrade we have this part of town called New Belgrade that, when we were growing up, we all disliked very much. It’s built with the same principles Le Corbusier was using at the time. To me as a teenager it didn’t look particularly appealing, but as time passes and you mature as a person – and the world matures in a certain way – you realise that there is incredible beauty in those buildings. Le Corbusier’s buildings always had a social aspect – beautiful but practical, functional spaces that wouldn’t cost so much, that many people could use. This was after the second world war, when people were displaced from their homes. It’s an idea that I was brought up with, in socialism – to help other people in order to see society thriving as a whole.”
The concept of shelter is key to Roksanda Ilinčić’s designs. “When I create clothing it’s not to empower a woman, but to shelter and protect her,” she says. She started off studying architecture in Serbia before changing tack and earning an MA in womenswear from Central Saint Martins. Her brand, Roksanda, which she launched in 2005 in London (where she still lives and works) is known for its graphic play on colour and sculptural volume. Ilinčić is fuelled by creative collaboration – she has worked with the artists Eva Rothschild, Caroline Denervaud and Ella Kruglyanskaya – and her latest project is a collection for Fila.
Hair: Sophie Jane Anderson at Future Rep. Make-up: Rebecca Davenport using BYREDO. Photographic assistant: Jessica Pearson. Post-production: She Post Production. Printing: Moderne Lab
This story features in the Autumn/Winter 2022 issue of AnOther Magazine, which is on sale internationally now. Buy a copy here.
