Rita
Ora Exclusive ‘Mystic Moon’ Interview.
We spoke to Rita Ora about her
9th
adidas collection ‘Mystic Moon’ at JD Sports, Oxford Circus.
TUM (The Unisex Mode): Rita
are you ready to talk about your new collection?
Rita: HELL YEAH! I’m so excited
about my new collection! Did you know it’s my 9th collection for
adidas? Isn’t that weird!
TUM: 9th?! No way we didn’t
realise it had been that many! Okay so to introduce ourselves we are
Kitty and Jess and we run a blog about streetwear, with a huge focus
on women in streetwear.
Rita: Oh awesome, very relevant!
TUM: Thank you, you are very
relevant to us. We wanted to know, have you always wanted to design
clothing and kicks or was this just a great opportunity that came
about?
Rita; I’ve always found it
interesting, but because I came from the streets I always thought
clothes were the way people identified themselves. So in my world
it’s important to represent who you are through your clothes, only
because that’s what I used to do growing up. And so when I had a
chance to that with adidas, I was like ‘think if I was still living
where I was living, what I would want?’ And I was thinking I would
want something interesting and affordable and recognisable. So I was
trying to make clothes that really represented that. For me it’s
not about gangs or any of that, it’s more about having that
identity where you feel comfortable, so that’s how I approached it.
My first collection was a rose pack and it was pretty, but when I
look back at it now there’s some things I would change, you know. I
guess it’s all about learning about it.
Kitty (TUM): The Same as music
right?
Rita: It’s exactly the same as
music actually, you just have to give the results quicker. With music
you’ve got time to wait it out.
TUM: So what made you want to
collaborate with adidas over other brands?
Adidas is something I always
think about when I remember growing up. When it comes to adidas I
think about music like Run DMC; and all the collaborations that have
been done with adidas. They have still been very sports related
because it’s still a sports brand, but I feel they support
musicians a lot, and I think that’s a really good way to combine
two creative worlds. I don’t think music and fashion have been
closer before than where they are now- you’ve got musicians
fronting campaigns and then you have kids finding it interesting.
Anyone can get into fashion, I feel like it’s easy, you know what I
mean?
TUM: Yes anyone can start a
tee-shirt brand and it can build their identity. A lot of young
musicians do that right? They go on tour with their tour merch.
Rita: Yes tour merch, we do it
already anyway! But I feel like I’ve loved adidas for years, I
can’t believe I have my own shell toes. I’ve worn shell toes for
years… I used to sell shell toes!
TUM: That must be so surreal
going from working in a store selling them, to owning them, to
designing them!
Rita: I walked into the shop I
used to work in and my trainers were on the shelves, isn’t that
weird! I had a weird 360 moment, it was emotional.
TUM: What inspires you design
clothes, is it the same as what inspires you to right music? Or
completely different?
Clothes and music for me are like
brother and sister. I have a great design team so I can’t
completely take the whole credit- I have really good people on my
team that are really good when it comes to sketches for adidas. But
for music there’s only 2 people that I really talk to about it-
that’s a whole other thing. The thing with fashion is that it’s
good to get loads of people’s ideas because then it’s like a
rolling ball. But with music if you get loads of ideas you start
getting confused because it’s almost like it’s sensitive. That’s
the only difference with the process I would say!
TUM: Yeah for real, if you
listen to too much metal you could go in the studio and want to write
metal that day but with fashion you can use that influence within the
clothes. In-fact this collection even has some punk rock elements?
Rita: Yeah definitely the
silhouettes are definitely punk rock, I used to love my punk rock
growing up. I loved their lifestyle and then I started to get into
their music- Dead Kennedys, The Clash, GBH and things like that- no
one really knows that’s what I liked growing up. The next adidas
collection is going be in that world.
TUM: Wow that sounds cool.
Well Rita thanks so much for taking time to speak to us today, it was
lovely to meet you!
Rita: It was nice to meet you
guys too!
The Unisex Mode 