‘The instinct to empower is the same’: Astrid Andersen on her return to fashion

Sign up to receive the Vogue Business newsletter for the latest luxury news and insights, plus exclusive membership discounts. For 11 years until 2021 Astrid Andersen carved a pioneering path in contemporary fashion by integrating tropes of sensual femininity into the conventionally testosterone defined milieu of sportswear-genus menswear. Hers was a marquee name at London Collections: Men, and her garments were worn by influential fans including Nas, A$AP Nast, A$AP Ferg, and Noomi Rapace. Now — following three years away to focus on raising her two young children alongside marinating plans for her next move — Andersen is back. The designer will reveal “Collection 01” of her new label Stel (which means “body” in Danish) at Copenhagen Fashion Week, on Wednesday 7 August. The see-now-buy-now event will be a presentation rather than a runway show and might well, you’d guess, reflect her elevator pitch for the new line: “This is tailoring you can skate in, denim you can dance in, shirting you can travel in,” she says over Zoom. Buyers will also be able to preview “Collection 02” by appointment, as the designer and her backers look to garner wholesale interest from markets including the UK and US. Andersen, who also turns 40 next month, laughs as she concedes that Stel’s aesthetic is dramatically different from that of the brand she started shortly after graduation from the Royal College of Art back in 2010. “Life changes, you know? You become different, although you still have all your original reference points and the instinct to empower is the same — so it feels right for this 2.0 to be a little bit more about me.” Andersen 1.0’s USP was to blend basketball attire with almost baroque, ceremonially lush fabrication details in lace, damask or fur: this unique combination was gestated via her adolescence in Vejle, Denmark, and her first boyfriend — a basketball player named Lasse. Stel, she says, is still driven by the same core motive: “to empower and give confidence through design. This time though the design language is different.” She adds: “Having gone through the journey of growing as a woman and also having kids, with all the conversations you have across those experiences, it became really important to me that this functions to empower females through certain fits, built-in flex, and adaptability in the wearing.” Asked for an example of this she points to a Collection 01 waterproof double layered coat — a sort of cropped technical trench — with an adaptable over-vest that can be adjusted via strapping at the arm. “It’s actually like a basketball tank,” she observes. Stel is being produced in partnership with Danish entrepreneur Anders Freund and will be produced in sites across Portugal, Turkey and China. Says Andersen: “Because of his background building businesses and in retail, Anders has access to production that can deliver really high quality products at a more mindful price. This is a very interesting thing for me to unlock. Because for me luxury has never been defined by the price tag, but at Astrid we sometimes struggled because we just had to have a certain positioning.” She adds that Freund’s support has enabled her to shape an infrastructure that can precisely grade a diverse span of sizing options. Next month’s debut presentation will coincide with the simultaneous launch of the brand’s DTC website and a retail partnership with the Danish capital’s influential multi-brand, Storm. “To be able to sit in Storm is really important,” says Andersen: “Because for it to sit in a shop like that it must be of a high level of quality. Then at the same time we want to surprise people a little bit with the price point.” In the first collection, this will range from €89 for a T-shirt to €529 for a piece of full-length outerwear. The presentation itself will be styled by A$AP Nast, a friend and supporter of Andersen’s since her very first days as an emerging designer in London. “He has impeccable taste and an innate understanding of style and a real sense of this woman. So to have him as a creative force for me to tap into is incredible.” From her earliest shows at Lulu Kennedy’s incubator Man, via her runway years, and ending with her final Covid-defined digital shows , Andersen’s eponymous collections were always in part the product of a female gaze cast upon men. She says: “There’s always been that connection to attraction. And today I know when I feel that a female looks powerful and strong — like this is someone that I want to talk to.” Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com. More from this author: Shoe-in: Paul Andrew is the new creative director of Sergio Rossi Peter Hawkings exits Tom Ford Margaret Howell on pioneering handicraft, androgyny and constancy in fashion

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