A favourite with Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle, Serbian fashion designer Roksanda Ilinčić has collaborated with athleisure brand lululemon to create a capsule collection. And it's safe to say that yoga classes will never be the same again.
Ilinčić, best known for her block colour, directional shapes and sculptural dresses, has brought her much-loved style to a 17-piece collection that ranges from outerwear (yes, there's a cape) to duffel bags and a jacket with voluminous bishop sleeves - one of the designer’s signature shapes.
It's the first time that lululemon has collaborated with a UK-based fashion designer on an entire collection and we for one couldn't be more thrilled.
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With an emphasis on transitional pieces that work from ‘street-to-sweat’, Audrey Reilly, lululemon’s SVP of women’s design, says the collaboration is ‘the perfect marriage of lululemon’s athleticism and Roksanda’s modern shapes and trademark colour blocking'.
The mix-and-match element was one of the reasons Roksanda, who is a Pilates addict, came on board with the collection.
'As a designer I’ve always mixed different things that were quite contrasting and opposite,’ she told ELLE UK. ‘At the beginning of my career, I would have a big puffy skirt worn with a t-shirt and not everybody would understand why.’
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Asking a designer to choose their favourite piece from a collection is like asking them to choose their favourite child, but there is one item that Roksanda can’t wait to wear: the Inner Expanse Infinity Coat - ‘it’s a coat, a puffer jacket, a trench and a sleeping bag!’
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Reversible, with detachable sleeves and hood, and packable parts, the coat - which retails at £898 - can be worn a whopping 32 different ways. That's one way for each weather scenario you're likely to encounter this season.
Roksanda admits the collection, which also incorporates lululemon's signature close-to-the-body aesthetic, is unlike anything she’s designed before.
‘When you get into performance gear, it is very different,' she says. 'Everything has a function and everything has to last for several washing cycles and exercising.’
Could we be seeing more sporty touches in future collections? Never say never. ‘I loved doing it because it was a great way to bring that back into my own designs,' the designer admits.
In the meantime, there’s another Roksanda x lululemon capsule collection in the making, which will drop in January 2020.
The Roksanda x lululemon Fall Winter 2019 collection will be available to buy on lululemon.co.uk and in selected lululemon and Roksanda stores from 22 October 2019.
