It’s been a year of change for Samuel Ross. After selling his streetwear label A-Cold-Wall in early 2024, the British designer — who interned with Virgil Abloh before starting out on his own — launched a new made-to-order brand, SR_A, which stands for both Samuel Ross Atelier and Studio Research Attire. On Saturday, Ross revealed the first part of his four-part collaboration with Zara called SR_A Engineered by Zara during Paris Fashion Week Men’s.
Ross used the money he won as part of the Hublot Design Prize in 2019 as the seed money to create SR_A, which features hand-painted garments made with Italian, Japanese and British fabrics, plus made-in-UK footwear, available online. (SR_A also released a collaboration for the 20th anniversary of Dover Street Market London in December 2024.)
SR_A Engineered by Zara will be divided into two collections per year over two years: Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter. Contrasting to the SR_A line, the Zara capsule is focused on what Ross calls a “garment system”, which he defines as “establishing durable, functional uniforms for modern living” “at a democratic price point”.
The first collection comprises 40 pieces (90 SKUs), with prices ranging from £29.99 for a pair of socks to £289 for a fishtail parka. It will be available in three Zara stores (Milan, Madrid and Paris) from 6 February, plus a dedicated pop-up store in Soho and online. The launch is accompanied by a campaign starring footballer Jules Koundé, photographed by Gabriel Moses. Among the attendees at the event, held at the Grand Palais Immersif, were Marta Ortega, non-executive chair of Zara parent company Inditex and daughter of the company s founder Amancio Ortega; American DJ Honey Dijon; and designer Bianca Saunders.
Vogue: How did the collaboration with Zara come about?
This concept came about after a dear friend, Anita Templer, introduced me to Marta Ortega. My business partner Yi Ng and I have been working on this view of the future of apparel for the past year and a half. We flew over — super old school with two suitcases for the samples — and we talked [to Ortega] about the future of garment design. We had a great conversation. We went to Spain every month — 5am flight, and we’re there. We’ve also crossed paths a few times in London.
Vogue: How can high-low collaborations work, in your view?
I think it’s up to the designer to determine how they want to frame the collaboration. For myself, it was more about looking at the foundations of what apparel is for, and finding a way to make a sense of magic in that space. That’s a proposition which maybe hasn’t been contextualised for Zara yet. And that was part of our pitch.
Vogue: What is the sales target?
We’ve intentionally kept this quite small. We’ll see how it performs; we all feel quite confident about it. On our first mailer, we had 285,000 sign-ups, which is a good start. I feel good about offering a tight collaboration which is very clear about what it wishes to say. A good example is the footwear category. We only have two styles: a really lean, slim runner, very sophisticated; and then we have an indoor, chunky sandal. We offer those in three core colours. It’s a very precise perspective for season one.
Vogue: Why did you change direction from A-Cold-Wall, which operated a wholesale model, to SR_A, which is made-to-order?
In the wholesale model, the pricing is so egregious [because of the retail markup]. The vast majority of the reason as to why I wished to push the sale [of A-Cold-Wall] was because I believe there’s a better model, which is free of price barriers and overproduction of garments.
Vogue: How do you weigh this up against working with a high-volume retailer?
I think there’s an opportunity to meet demand if price isn’t a barrier. It gets complex when the pricing is too high, and markdown is too aggressive, and there isn’t actually demand. I think that with Zara, there’s an opportunity to improve and enhance outside of just creative perspectives.
Vogue: What have you learned so far from working with Zara?
There’s such a sophistication to their merchandising, which is really interesting to study and understand. Again, what we perceive people to buy and what people actually buy. That’s the main learning.
Vogue: Have you had time to look at the shows this season?
I made time to see Jerry [Lorenzo] at the Fear of God showroom. He’s a really dear friend. For years, we’ve had a great rapport, and I feel like, to a degree, we speak to a particular generation, and there’s a relationship we have to luxury and comfort that is really interesting in different ways, but there’s a definite affinity. So we’ve been talking quite a bit.
Apart from Jerry, I was looking at Willy Chavarria. The energy and the sense of confidence is so stunning, so strong. And, of course, there’s the wonderful legacy at Kim Jones’s show for Dior. Kim gave me quite a bit of advice early in my career when I won the BFC/GQ Designer Menswear Fund. Actually, his advice is similar to what I’m doing now and how SR_A is modelled.
Vogue: Kim Jones recently told me that his advice to young designers is to go slow and steady.
Gradually, yes. Never meet demand. Always underserve.
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