About the speakers
Originally from Serbia, Roksanda Ilincic studied Architecture and Applied Arts at the University of Belgrade before moving to London to complete an MA in Womenswear at Central Saint Martins.
In over a decade since founding her label, Roksanda has evolved an unmistakable design aesthetic as a women consciously designing for women. Roksanda's daring use of colour, unabashed femininity, sculptural shapes, modern distinctive cuts, innovative use of fabrics and unerring attention to detail make up what are now pillars of the ROKSANDA DNA. Synonymous with modern and contemporary art influences, Roksanda regularly collaborates with like-minded female artists and arts institutions internationally.
Roksanda has received multiple awards and nominations for her work including Red Carpet Designer of the Year at the Fashion Awards. She is listed in the Business of Fashion 500, a global index of the most important people shaping the fashion industry today.
ROKSANDA was founded with a view to creating a new perception of femininity, while also being a platform that champions, celebrates and highlights other female voices.
Alice Rawsthorn is an award-winning design critic and author, whose books include Design as an Attitude, Hello World: Where Design Meets Life and, most recently, Design Emergency: Building a Better Future, co-written with Paola Antonelli, senior curator of design at MoMA, New York. Alice’s weekly design column for The New York Times was syndicated worldwide for over a decade. In all her work, Alice champions design’s potential as a social, political and ecological tool. Born in Manchester and based in London, she is a founding member of the Writers for Liberty campaign for human rights and of the advisory boards of DemocracyNext and the OECD’s Future of Democracy Network. Alice and Paola are co-founders of Design Emergency, a research platform and podcast that investigates design’s role in forging a fairer future.
Picture credits: Roksanda Ilincic by Quentin Jones/Alice Rawsthorn by Michael Leckie