“Growing out of something and into another thing…is a scary move,” said Astrid Andersen, who seems up for the challenge. Even seasoned designers have learning curves and Andersen, who was trained in menswear in London, is growing into a womenswear designer at Stel, which launched last August.
The brand has been conceived to address the life that Andersen is living now. The idea is to create not-quite wardrobe staples—they all have that little something extra that takes them beyond basics. Streetwear it is not, the designer emphasized, “because I was so defined by that in my previous work. It’s not streetwear, but it’s clothes for the streets.”
And it’s public thoroughfares, like crosswalks, that Andersen had in mind when it came to planning her spring presentation. Specifically, she was thinking of those silent connections and interactions that happen in such places and she tried to capture that experience by arranging chairs in groups around which models walked in all directions. This made it more difficult to take in the clothes, but it created a mood that was energetic and purposeful as models in smart, streamered hats and Dr. Martens strode by.
Shirting is a key element of Stel’s modular offering; the show opened with an asymmetric oversized shirt. Like the hero nylon bombers, a black denim jacket was cut close and short. The main proposal was a layered look, often a top and skirt over pants. Andersen introduced patterns for the first time in the form of houndstooth checks.
So far, Andersen’s womenswear has a bit of an androgynous quality. The pleats she introduced—some of which felt heavy or bulky—moved things in a more stereotypically feminine direction that was harder to connect to than the workhorse pieces.