ROSE CORPS - GRITTY IN PINK
Designer Naomi Danilewicz looks to the streetwear phenomenon to add couture-style embellishment that is of high quality and ethically sound
Photos / Video: ©Naomi Danilewicz @rose.corps
Model: Holly Willson @hollyolivia_portfolio
MUA: Helena Sergeant @helenasergeantmakeup
ISSUE #14 : COVER SHOT ©Rose Corps
How do you manufacture the unexpected? You can’t. Nor can you bottle surprise or fabricate the ‘stumbled upon’. It just ‘is’. And that’s why, when it happens, it’s absolute dynamite.
To us, Rose Corps was just that. Following up on an email from a university fashion group, ‘cene uncovered an absolute aptronym – an entity that is perfectly described by its name.
Rose Corps pairs pink power and elegant embroidery with a sharp streetwear edge, just as its flower namesake is coupled with the spike of the thorns.
“I fell in love with embroidery,” explains Naomi Danilewicz. “But it seemed that it was always just used on bridal wear or haute couture. But I thought how mind-blowing would it be to have that old-school artistic vision on streetwear.
“Growing up, I always felt girls were encouraged to be very cute or dainty and adorable. But I want to give a bit more depth to it. Yes, a lot of my designs are in pink, but I do believe in the power of pink.
“I think it’s a free and empowering colour for women and men. I find that when some people design empowering clothes for women that it’s all very manly clothes like suits and shirts and things like that. And that’s fine, but we need to teach girls that the lovely feminine side is also their power. You don’t have to make it masculine.
“I like it when people wear my stuff with really heavy boots and really bring their own personality to how they wear it. That’s what Rose Corps was meant to be, something very feminine but with a bit of grit.”
Now based in Tunbridge Wells but originally from Poland, Naomi has paid her fashion dues, having studied at an international school of fashion designing, gone flat broke during an extended sojourn to Paris and ended up working in a warehouse in London and operating out of a garage.
And it could have all been so different.
SEWING THE SEED
“I realised that I hated fashion,” says Naomi. “It was all about this whole big industry, with nameless faces and the whole rat race. I hated that first year of college so much that I actually threw my sewing machine out of the window. I never wanted to do it… but I couldn’t keep away.”
While sipping beverages along the river was a large part of a few “blurry months” in Paris, it was the city’s renowned reputation for bespoke fabrics design that reignited the spark for Naomi.
“I learned that right next to the big fashion monster is a lovely little community of people who just adore fashion for the pure sake of empowerment and freedom of expression,” she explains. “I knew that’s what I wanted to do: to stick to hand-made fashion.”
A ‘can do’ attitude really can do you wonders. And despite a warehouse day job, and operating her own ‘garage couture’, Naomi has pursued the dream. And for a while, with just a tenner in her pocket, it really was just a dream.
“People told me that the art scene means ‘no jobs’, but there’s a completely different world of people out there chasing after things. And it inspires me,” says Naomi. “What’s the worst thing that could happen? I could make a dress and not sell it? If that’s the darkest outcome, it’s worth pursuing.”
“One day, British Vogue contacted me about some promo options, and asked to speak to my PR and marketing team. A marketing team! I dropped a banana on the floor earlier that day and I ate it, let alone had a marketing team!”
Escaping the London rat race, Naomi and her partner moved to Tunbridge Wells, where things really kicked on. Now working part-time as a fashion technician at West Kent College, the designer uses her extra hours to push Rose Corps. And the belief is paying off.
Creating contemporary streetwear, but with enhanced couture embellishment and signature embroidery, Naomi is behind everything from sketch to photography to packing it personally for every customer. Having already built up a good customer base in the Far East, Naomi has already hit some major milestones, though she will modestly play them down.
“It’s funny, people think I have a really big set-up,” she remembers. “One day, British Vogue contacted me about some promo options and asked to speak to my PR and marketing team. A marketing team! I dropped a banana on the floor earlier that day and I ate it, let alone had a marketing team!
“Vogue is a great thing, but I felt they were more money-orientated than talent-focused. I’m not big on London Fashion Week, or any fashion week. I felt like it lost what it was about, it started feeling too much about money and celebrity.”
After a lot of thinking, Naomi turned down the Vogue opportunity to stick to her values of being an individual rather than another number.
“There’s seven billion people on the planet, there’s bound to be people of the same mindset, who want the same things as you do and want what you’re willing to give them. Do your thing, do your vision and people will buy into that.”
The designer has a steadfast ethos behind her product, with inclusivity at the forefront. Often using BAME models for her shoots, Naomi has a desire to create garments for all body types and shapes and has a plan to conduct gender-fluid photography shoots for her products.
“There are so many different bodies and so many different sizes,” she says. “I try to put more brains into each piece so it will look good no matter what size you are or how you wear it.”
Likewise, Naomi is very frank about the topical issues of ‘fast fashion’ and finding Rose Corps’ place within a changing industry.
“We’re moving forwards with our awareness of environmental impact and human rights elements of fast fashion,” she says. “We’re never going to be less aware of our impact, so I see slow fashion as the absolute future.
“But it’s not handmade T-shirts at a craft fair with a cat picture on them, and it’s not crazy-fancy couture with champagne and rooftop parties. Rose Corps is somewhere in between, and that’s what I love about it.”
Whether or not the coronavirus pandemic will have a positive impact on the industry is up for debate: “It’s still crazy when you see people queuing up outside Primark to get a pair of jeans for £2.29” but, as with the changes we’re all experiencing, Naomi is hoping that handmade, well-designed clothes becomes the new normal.
“I just adore making clothes.”
Insta: @rose.corps
Info: rosecorps.com/