Blue Roses: New Gothic Corsets and Lace

IN RUBRIC "NEW MARK" we present young designers and tell them where and why to buy their things. Our release this week is dedicated to the Blue Roses brand. Its founder is Briton Edward Midham, who may already be known to you by the brand Meadham Kirchhoff. In his new project, he continues to use the brand aesthetics of his past creation, the Victorian era, Gothic and excess luxury as starting points.

The brand Meadham Kirchhoff, which existed just under fifteen years, will remain in the history of fashion as an experiment of two Central Saint Martins graduates: Briton Edward Midham and Frenchman Benjamin Kirchhoff, who relied on unusual styling (predetermining the present moment, when almost all designers became good stylists) and borrowing elements of rococo, glam rock, and the world of Japanese schoolgirls. Few people now remember, but they began as male designers, who were not afraid to dress men in blouses with frill and floral print, thus also being ahead of their time and paving the way for young enthusiasts like the Palomo designer. Subsequently, the duo still focused on the female audience. “They didn’t stint on monstrous-sized crystals that were sewn onto lace cascades, varnished with glitter and sheathed with colored fur,” we wrote about them back in 2014.

Their joint collection with Topshop six months before had a tremendous success. But this served only as evidence that their real audience is people who cannot afford to pay five thousand pounds for complex outfits, even if made by hand, but can only want them. It was the business component that was disastrously ill-conceived and eventually led to the closure of Meadham Kirchhoff.

Fortunately, at least one part of the duo did not give up the dream: Edward Midham had a lookbook out of the second collection of his own brand Blue Roses, launched in 2016. This is still the same baroque aesthetics, however, made somewhat simpler: now, in addition to expensive dresses and unusual jewelry, there is a place for frankly comfortable things like hoodie with frivolous prints and longslivs that can already be bought in London Dover Street Market for 68 pounds. The course towards democratization is both good and bad. As the designer himself complains, it is more difficult for him in small collections to “tell a story”. And yet, Blue Roses collections also contain references that are very interesting to solve.

The guys opened their brand very early - without internship anywhere, they went right through, shocking at experiments and things that were difficult for ordinary life. Perhaps Blue Roses will prove to be the most successful compromise between commerce and creativity.

What I want to convey is that Blue Roses are not Meadham Kirchhoff. This is not one of those collections that are devoted to a grand theme or history. These are just things that can be worn every day in the real world. They can be washed in a typewriter and put on again - over time they will look even better. This is a project for young people, my fan base, to whom fashion does not offer anything. There is nothing in fashion for girls, fashionable children and weirdos. Blue Roses for them.