Designer Christopher John Rogers is known for his glamorous eveningwear. His latest collection, 008, exemplifies his signature romance and buoyant colour.
008 is a collection that aims to push the boundaries of optimism. And it’s an interesting time to offer this up, in a world on the verge of returning to a kind of normality.
The collection turns classic staples and Rogers’ typically dramatic eveningwear into transitional items that are versatile and wearable. Moss-greens, orange-reds and rainbow stripes wink at a cheerfulness that we’ve all been missing of late. Bold floral prints, polka dots and multicolour geometric shapes create the colour-blocking fits of your dreams.
008, an apt name for the designer’s eighth collection, is more practical than previous efforts without ever entering the mundane. Here, Rogers deftly treads the line between camp melodrama and pragmatic daywear.
While Rogers is known for his expertise in colour, this collection demonstrates that he’s also a master of tailoring and draping. And he keeps his feet firmly on the ground by acknowledging the importance of diversity in fashion.
The designer told i-D,
“I want to make things that allow people to say the things that they want to say, without having to shout about it. There are a lot of conversations around diversity and inclusion at the moment that all feel very performative. I’m a queer person, a person of color, a Black American, and the work that I do is informed by all of those things, but it’s not demonstrative of them. And I’m not trying to prove anything about them.”
It’s truly a talent to make individuals and groups of people feel seen without having to spell it out. The collections speak for themselves, embodying an aesthetic and physicality that combines the retrospective with the present moment.
He went on to say,
“One thing I’m very happy about is that, even with the Target collection, queer folks, gender non-conforming folks, people who one may not expect to gravitate towards the collection are the ones in my messages saying, ‘Thank you so much for making something for someone like me!’ Even though, for me, I was just making a dress because it’s cute. I just want to make stuff that people want, and that makes people feel like they’re able to dress themselves, rather than feeling like they’re being dressed by someone else.”
Check out some of the new designs below:
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