Dezeen Magazine

Gary Card creates MDF landscape for Roksanda's Spring Summer 2016 fashion show

Post offices and stacked parcels influenced the MDF shapes that dotted the runway for London fashion brand Roksanda's Spring Summer 2016 show, which took place at a Grade-II listed sports hall in Marylebone (+ slideshow).

Roksanda Spring Summer 2016

The brand founded by Serbian fashion designer Roksanda Ilincic debuted its latest collection yesterday, during London Fashion Week.

The show's venue, Seymour Leisure Centre, was originally designed by British architect Kenneth Cross in 1937, and normally functions as a sports hall for badminton, basketball and tennis.

Roksanda Spring Summer 2016

The building is a popular venue for fashion presentations. Roksanda also showed in the arch-roofed space last season and British outerwear brand Hunter utilised it for its Spring Summer 2015 presentation.

London-based set designer Gary Card – who designed the interior of the LN:CC store in the city – lined the runway with a maze of three-dimensional forms made from medium density fibreboard (MDF). He also laid flat pieces of the material with cut-out shapes against the walls of the space.

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"This season we were greatly inspired by utilitarian shape and spaces," Card told Dezeen. "Storage units, stacked parcels and post offices were our starting point for this idea."

"I think its fair to say that before this project Roksanda disliked MDF and always asked us not to use it," he said. "However, this time I suggested making the set entirely out of MDF as a joke, and almost immediately we both loved the idea."

The choice of material derived from its "honest" and simple look, which Card said "worked harmoniously" with the fashion collection's colour palette of pinks, blues and yellows.

Roksanda Spring Summer 2016

"Elevating this ubiquitous material and exploring it at such a huge scale seemed anarchic and brave and ultimately we really responded to the honesty of the idea," said Card.

"Tonally it worked fantastically well with this season's collection, and this is probably our most harmonious collaboration so far," he continued.

Roksanda Spring Summer 2016

Although natural lighting flooded the space through rows of windows in the roof, stage lighting was used to cast colours over the wooden floor. The lighting was designed by Nick Gray, who previously lit Gareth Pugh's Autumn Winter 2015 show at the V&A.

Drawing inspiration from Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging, Roksanda's collection drew upon ideas of asymmetry and empty space – themes also reflected through the cut-out element of Card's set design.

Roksanda Spring Summer 2016

Roksanda's signature colour-blocked shapes, a strong theme throughout the brand's latest resort collection, were recreated through the layering of fabric in unusual formations and cuts.

Hand-frayed embroidered organza was used to create jackets and dresses, whilst strapless jumpsuits were made from sand-washed silk satin.

Roksanda Spring Summer 2016

The brand collaborated with stylist-turned-footwear-designer Tabitha Simmons to create black heeled leather boots, and also debuted its own range of fine jewellery made up of gold and gold-plated bracelets, rings, earrings and necklaces.

This season's London Fashion Week took place from 18 to 22 September 2015, during which Pugh presented a disco-themed collection influenced by Soho.

Roksanda Spring Summer 2016

Roksanda opened its first boutique in London last year, with an interior designed by David Adjaye. Ilincic has previously created a dystopian "dreamhome" for Barbie.