Donald Robertson’s gaffer tape butterflies flit to Weekend Max Mara
Donald Robertson – famed American illustrator – creates figurative winged creatures for Weekend Max Mara's S/S 2021 collection
It's fitting that the group term for butterflies is ‘kaleidoscope', because Weekend Max Mara's S/S 2021 collection is emblazoned with prismatic prints of fluttering wings.
For spring, the Italian brand has teamed up with renowned American illustrator and artist Donald Robertson, on a breezy womenswear collection of ‘Flutterfly' motif pieces, which are the result of instinctive inspiration. ‘Imagine my ear is a door into my brain. The Weekend Max Mara designers crawled up and into my head – they seemed to understand exactly what I wanted to create from the start,' Robertson explains.
‘Social media requires speedy content and oil painting takes way too long to dry'
Robertson is famed for his expressive, uplifting and playful illustrations, which revel in a spontaneous sense of form and colour. The artist has collaborated with a host of brands and retailers, including Bergdorf Goodman and Smashbox. Celebrating fast-paced creativity, he often uses graphic gaffer tape in his Instagram-emblazoned designs, which is used recreate the heart-shaped Comme des Garçons PLAY logo or form the bodies of stylish stick figures. ‘Social media requires speedy content and oil painting takes way too long to dry. Tape is instantaneous and super photogenic,' he explains.
The material played a central role in Robertson's designs for Weekend Max Mara which see rainbow stripes and bold butterfies formed from strips and scissored shapes of gaffer tape. It also informs the construction of silhouettes, including a summer dress with geometric straps and criss-cross waistbands. ‘I go between figurative fashion stuff and super graphic stripes. That is where the gaffer tape comes into play,' Robertson says. ‘The butterflies were an experiment to make something delicate out of hard edge tape.'
While Robertson's designs have a naturalistic nod, the artist has revelled in the indoors solitude of the last 12 months. ‘I have waited my entire life to be told to go to my room and not come out,' he enthuses. ‘I don’t want to leave my studio. I love it in here. I am a complete creative criminal! I borrow ideas from everyone, my kids, other artists, dead artists, that elephant on YouTube that paints... everything inspires me. I am just waiting for the police to kick down my studio door!'
INFORMATION
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
-
Ruark Audio and Revo give the CD player revival a fresh spin
Ruark Audio’s new R-CD100 and the Revo SuperCD are joined by two more quirky devices to revive those classic discs
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
The new Ford Capri wants to tap a vein of Gen X nostalgia. Does it succeed?
We ask if the all-electric Ford Capri can capture the swagger of its much-loved but rather oafish predecessor
By Guy Bird Published
-
Rug designer Sibylle de Tavernost’s homage to Fernand Léger
Abstract modern art, craft heritage and contemporary life fuse in Sibylle de Tavernost's new limited-edition rugs
By Harriet Thorpe Published
-
In Japan, Weekend Max Mara’s ‘Pasticcino’ bag is transformed with local craft
The third leg of Weekend Max Mara’s ‘Pasticcino’ bag tour touches down in Kyoto, Japan, where the country’s craft heritage inspires a bounty of riches
By Jack Moss Published
-
Highlights from the jet-setting Cruise 2025 shows
Our pick of the globe-trotting Cruise 2025 shows, from Dior’s takeover of Drummond Castle, Scotland to Max Mara’s season finale in Venice
By Jack Moss Last updated
-
Milan Fashion Week A/W 2024: Giorgio Armani to Bottega Veneta
The very best of Milan Fashion Week A/W 2024, from Giorgio Armani’s celebration of renewal to the ’monumental everyday’ at Bottega Veneta
By Jack Moss Last updated
-
This season’s womenswear channels freedom and escape
These S/S 2024 womenswear looks promise an escape from the everyday, and are photographed amid the otherwordly landscapes of the Canary Islands for the March 2024 Style Issue of Wallpaper*
By Jack Moss Published
-
Inside Max Mara’s teddy-filled ‘fluffy residence‘ in London’s Covent Garden
A transporting escape amid the bustle of last-minute shopping, Max Mara’s immersive new London pop-up continues their Teddy Coat tenth-anniversary by creating an apartment entirely covered in fluffy teddy fabric
By Jack Moss Published
-
Modern classic: Max Mara toasts ten years of the Teddy Coat
Max Mara celebrates the tenth anniversary of Ian Griffiths’ Teddy Coat, a cocooning style which is now firmly part of the Italian house’s famed outerwear canon
By Jack Moss Published
-
Patricia Urquiola on her rule-breaking capsule collection for Weekend Max Mara
‘Sometimes you just have to change the rules,’ says Spanish architect and designer Patricia Urquiola on her colourful capsule for Weekend Max Mara, designed to reflect the needs and contradictions of everyday life
By Jack Moss Last updated
-
Illustrating The American Dream with Conner Ives
Explore wunderkind Ives' mythic visions of a modern USA through fashion
By Laura Hawkins Last updated