Malone Souliers’ knack for capturing the zeitgeist extends to its collaborations. Over the past few years, Creative Director and Founder Mary Alice Malone’s charismatic designs have provided the finishing touch to collections across the global fashion week circuit.
"We can expand our creativity and create product we don’t currently offer within the main label. It’s about staying energetic; all the different creative inputs really help to propel our brand forward." - Mary Alice Malone
Backstage at the first Malone Souliers x Roksanda show, SS17
An inventor at heart, a chance to experiment is always something Mary Alice jumps at. This playful nature is at the core of the Malone Souliers ethos and diffuses throughout the brand. Known for serious, accolade-worthy design which remembers not to take itself too seriously, the brand’s spirit is oft-defined as, ‘classic, unapologetic, and feminine’ - words that could also be used to describe womenswear label Roksanda.
Founded by Serbian fashion designer Roksanda Ilinčić, Roksanda is a multi-award winning brand based in London. A student of architecture, before studying under the renowned Louise Wilson at Central Saint Martins, Ilinčić’s architectural eye is witnessed in the structured forms and sweeping gestures present throughout her ready-to-wear collections. Roksanda is worn by powerful women the world over, iconic designs easily identified by their mutable, structured tailoring and canny placement of bold block colour.
Malone Souliers x Roksanda, SS20
That Malone Souliers and Roksanda’s meeting of minds has lasted eight seasons is no coincidence. Ilinčić’s training in architecture and womenswear combines effortlessly at Roksanda and with the lightest of touches, a sentiment echoed by Mary Alice’s background in furniture design. Nowhere is this synchronicity better exemplified than in Malone Souliers’ designs for Roksanda’s AW20 collection.
Malone Souliers x Roksanda, AW20
Malone Souliers’ trademark Nappa has been elaborately manipulated into dramatic ruched shapes; hand-moulding and knotting of leather so soft it appears cloth-like. Roksanda’s constricted drapery is mirrored on a knotted leather pump and a slouchy, over-knee boot with a cinching strap at the knee. Malone Souliers’ signature strap echoes the anchoring nature of a belted waist, the sweeping arc of a colour-blocked heel mimics a skirt’s sway, and a dash of metallic eco-fur across a kitten heel pump heralds the unexpected.
Each of the collection’s five styles - knee-high boot, sandal, sling-back, loafer and classic pump - demonstrate the fluidity of form that is a part of both Roksanda and Malone Souliers’ makeup. The sandal, loafer and pump offer a new elongated square-toe, an angular silhouette that compliments Roksanda’s uncompromising lines. Colours are succulent; pistachio, grape, burgundy, terracotta, fuchsia - Luis Barragan architecture transported to rainier climates.
Backstage at Malone Souliers x Roksanda, AW20
Roksanda fashion shows are riots of colour, full of the same shouldn’t-work-but-does shade combinations that Malone Souliers is known for. Melodramatic silhouettes are softened by an acute romanticism. Malone Souliers x Roksanda offers a redefinition of feminine for the contemporary woman.
