Steffie Christiaens
It’s not that usual to find a young fashion designer that shows a first collection during the official calendar of the Paris Fashion Week; but the Dutch designer Steffie Christiaens did, on a beautiful sunny almost-spring Sunday in Paris.
Steffie Christiaens established her Paris studio in 2010 to pursue a conceptual design process through womens & mens ready-to-wear collections. Prior to this, Steffie gained invaluable experience and savoir-faire in the atelier of Balenciaga and the artisanal ‘couture’ concept of the Maison Martin Margiela between 2007 and 2010. And it shows! Even if also a certain McQueen-esque influence is undeniable in her work.
Utilising her knowledge and training in the fields of fabric design, 3-D construction and printing, Steffie imbues a deep personal ideology and an abstract mythology into her garments. Constantly challenging traditional garment codes through her experimentation with elemental forces and the asymmetry of nature, Steffie Christiaens provokes a new dialogue in the converging realms of art and fashion.
Her concept is well explained on her website: One windy day whilst filming a cherry tree covered with netting, Steffie Christiaens discovered the elemental inspiration that would form the unique beginnings of her experiential design process.
Christiaens’ organic shapes flow over the body like waves,intuitive of the human form beneath. Maintaining an artisanal approach to more experimental garments, the collection delivers a balance between a structure rooted in Futurist spatial forms and a fluidity of relaxed elegance.
Ariko
