Photograph courtesy of Lululemon

The Second Lululemon x Roksanda Collection Hits Shelves Today

We caught up with the designer ahead of the second launch to talk about the collection.

Date January 14, 2020

Back in October, Canadian sportswear brand Lululemon launched the first drop in its collaboration collection with fashion designer Roksanda Ilincic. The collection was an immediate success, fusing fashion and functionality for women on the move who want to look good. Now, the second drop is here, rounding out the collection of tights, leggings, sports bras and coats with stylish effect.

The winter collection features a palette of rustic coral, mustard yellow, burgundy and teal.

Ahead of today’s launch, we spoke with Ilincic about the collection to find out more about her design process, how her signature sleeves translated into athleisure and what her favourite piece in the collection is.

How did the collaboration with Lululemon come about?

Lululemon has always been the label I gravitate towards for my sportswear. When they approached me and began the discussion, we discovered that there were so many similarities in our core values that even though we are from two really different worlds, it felt really quite natural and organic.

How did designing these athleisure pieces differ from your usual design work?

The difference was that we were extending our design vocabulary to more functional, sport and protective wear, which was so exciting for us.

However, our main design principles didn’t differ to how we would look at a ready-to-wear collection – art and architectural are always my starting points and I felt it was very important to translate this into the collaboration.

This is the first time you’ve designed an athleisurewear collection – was there anything you learnt about proportion/function/movement that was new to you as a ready-to-wear designer?

It was really refreshing and exciting to be challenged in this way, thinking in real depth about functionality, sports performance and fluidity of movement. It was really fascinating to learn about all of the incredible Lululemon technical possibilities, product testing labs and constant devotion to function and reasons why a certain garment is created. We worked really closely with Lululemon’s expert knowledge of technical fabrics and innovative high-performance finishing techniques to bring it all together.

You often play with oversized proportions in your designs, particularly when it comes to sleeves – how did you infuse that aesthetic into this collection?

We have really kept the collection in line with my aesthetic of exaggerated shapes, sculptural cuts and bold colour blocking and this has been translated throughout the collaboration – whether that be with the multi-layered and multi-functional, voluminous Inner Expanse Infinity Coat or the sleeve detailing of the Face Forward Define Jacket. It was a great merge of two worlds.

What was the biggest challenge with this collection?

The most challenging part of the collaboration was our teams being on different time zones – London and Vancouver – but we found a good solution to this early on in the process.

What is your favourite piece in the line-up?

My favourite piece is certainly the Inner Expanse Infinity Coat! This was the starting point of the collection. The initial research for the collaboration came from collecting sleeping bags. We experimented with creating different shapes and proportions. We really wanted to create something multi-functional – a modular garment that had many different ways of wearing it and I really feel we achieved that with this garment. It can be your winter coat, a vest, a trench coat or even a cosy pillow!

See the next instalment of the Lululemon x Roksanda collection below: