After a Short Hiatus, Astrid Andersen’s Back With Clothes to Last Forever
At Copenhagen Fashion Week, August 7 was unofficially dubbed Astrid Andersen Day. The designer, who shelved her eponymous brand in 2021, is back and previewed a new venture titled STEL from a former coal crane converted into a luxury hotel.
During the day, the ground floor housed an installation presenting the brand's first collection. Higher up, in a glass box, key members of the press and buyers were invited for early access to STEL’s second collection. Elsewhere, there were chillout rooms. And in the evening, the top floor became a nightclub hosting an intimate rave.
“It’s a new format for us. We get to have a few hours for me to talk to people where they can see the clothes and actually touch them,” Astrid Andersen tells me through a video call before the presentation, sitting on the top floor of the towering crane.
With a collection as important as this, an unveiling of not only a new brand but of Andersen’s development as a designer, the regular fashion show format does not suffice.
“It's showing people a journey that I'm on as a creative, I started Astrid Andersen when I was 25, straight out of college, and it was a pursuit of finding my language and direction,” says Andersen. “Now I'm 40 years old, I have two kids, I'm in a different place in life and I always have to be able to put myself at the center of what I do.”
Andersen exploded into the fashion industry as a pioneering force exploring the grey area between luxury fashion and streetwear. Her graphic-heavy collections presented a novel idea, one that the industry is still catching up with today, and got her big recognition: from her graduate collection winning the Brioni Creativity and Innovation Award to being nominated for LVMH’s prestigious Prize for Young Fashion Designers, twice.
Plus, big names like M.I.A., Skepta, and practically every member of the A$AP Mob regularly wore Astrid Andersen.
Today she is back with a different but equally novel proposition: “This is tailoring you can skate in, denim you can dance in, shirting you can travel in,” reads the top of a document introducing STEL.
A womenswear label focused on sustainably made clothing that will last the test of time, this is a more minimal offering than the sportswear-inspired designs Andersen was known for.
“When you look at the STEL collection, it's very clear that I'm trained as a menswear designer, that's my background. So my approach to design will always come through that lens of insisting on making things comfortable, practical, and stylish,” says Andersen.
“Those elements have to be present. It has to be empowered by the fact that you have free movement, and that's kind of a given when you do menswear.”
It’s been a year since the designer met her business partner and investor, Anders Freund, and she’s been carefully crafting STEL ever since.
“If you're not given the time or space to edit, you get a bit choked as a creative and I think that's maybe where I was in the end [of Astrid Andersen], taking a break gives you space to breathe and come back,” says Andersen. “Anders Freund was very transparent about not being in a rush and making sure we took our time to really craft a concept.”
Alongside his patience, Freund, an entrepreneur with an extensive retail background, also offers an already-built infrastructure that lets the clothing be produced to a high standard and at an approachable price point (ranging from €89 for a T-shirt up to €529 for a full-length coat).
Also part of the team behind this new collection is A$AP Nast, a friend of Andersen’s who she has been connected with since he helped to open her first shop in Copenhagen ten years ago, offering his services as a stylist and Ciesay from PLACES+FACES who helped with photography.
This is STEL’s hard launch. The brand has not only presented its first collection but, thanks to a see-now-buy-now concept, it’s also immediately available to shop on its website and at the innovative retailer STORM.
However, it will take time to truly know if the launch has been a success: STEL has ambitious plans for its clothing to be worn for a lifetime.
"There's a focus on adjustability within the garments and within the style because you change through life. And I think now more than ever, it's really about crafting things that can be long-lasting," says Andersen. "It's not about the amount of people [who buy something], but the people that hold onto it."
