What’s your approach to sustainability?
We work with discarded clothes as much as possible and try to keep all production and sourcing if not local, then in Europe. For us, design is the most important. We don’t want to make clothes just for the sake of making clothes, so keeping a small production and trying to grow but not over-scale, while keeping our aesthetic, feels like the right thing to do.
Stel
Astrid Andersen spent more than a decade at the helm of her namesake streetwear brand, which counted the likes of A$AP Nast and Noomi Rapace among its fans. Following a three-year hiatus from fashion to focus on her children, the designer is back with a new womenswear proposition, Stel, which launched last summer.
What’s the story behind the brand?
It’s been a journey evolving from my previous brand, Astrid Andersen, which I founded when I was in my mid 20s. Growing as a person and as a creative, you slowly start to evolve your language and your interests and everything. Stel was something that grew from there, and the need to maybe have a new point of view, where I could sit a bit more at the centre of it.
What’s your approach this time around?
It’s more about the product and this wardrobe-building concept that’s much more in tune with my personal approach to clothes and my Scandinavian heritage. When we first started talking about the intentions with the garments, I kept going back to the idea of tailoring you can skate in. I’m trained as a menswear designer, so comfort [and] movability is an integral part of how I empower through clothes. I’m also thinking about it from a more… I don’t want to say non-seasonal, but definitely collections-based approach. I’m excited to create pieces that feel quite timeless, but at the same time, have a language of their own.
