She is speaking from personal experience. The designer is married to Philip Bueno de Mesquita (also her business partner), whom she met at St. Martins in 1999 after she left her home in Belgrade to study there; they have a 6-year-old daughter, Efimia.
“I always wanted to come to London. My dream was to be taught by Louise Wilson,” Ms. Ilincic said of the celebrated St. Martins professor, who died in 2014. “I read all these articles when it came to choosing where to go to school; I suddenly had this moment, back in Serbia, that virtually every designer that really inspired me had done her course. And that was it. I went to London and never looked back.”
Now, Ms. Ilincic has ambitious expansion plans. After maintaining her independence for the best part of a decade, in 2014 she accepted outside investment from the Indian businesswoman Eiesha Bharti Pasricha, leading to the first Roksanda store, which opened in June of that year on Mount Street in Mayfair.
“I deliberately grew my label very slowly and organically,” she said. “I had no business experience when I started all of this from scratch, and was very aware of that, so wanted to take my time and maintain control. And I wanted to make sure I truly understood myself and where I wanted to take my vision.”
In 2015, she hired a chief executive, Carmela Acampora. Over the years, her product offerings have grown to include children’s wear, a bespoke service, jewelry, sunglasses and, as of this month, handbags.
“It’s clear that Roksanda really thinks about women’s lifestyles and their bodies, particularly an older demographic who can actually afford to spend considerable sums on their clothes,” said Ruth Chapman, co-founder of the luxury e-commerce site MatchesFashion.com.
As a result, she continued, the site’s sales of the brand doubled last year, and now, “for our buyers, Roksanda is the British brand right up there with Gucci. All the fundamentals are now in place for her to really become big league.”
In other words: a power player, by another name.