The Danish-born, London-trained talent behind hip label Staerk, Camilla Staerk is an edgy designer, known for her garment texture and fabrics (especially her use of leather). The designer says that she draws on the fluid lines of Danish Modern design and the haunted fog brooding over Prince Hamlet’s Elsinore Castle for inspiration for her unique and personal vision of dress.
Trained in London, Staerk’s graduate fashion show at Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication caught the eye of both the international press and buyers at the boutiques Browns Focus and Maria Luisa. She went on to be awarded Topshop’s New Generation Award three times, and she was dubbed “a future fashion star,” by British Vogue.
Darkly romantic in mood, Staerk’s designs caught the eye of model and photographer Helena Christensen who stocked the designer’s wears in her boutique, Butik, hosted Staerk’s debut presentation in New York at the store, and threw a Fashion Week party for the designer to celebrate her first catwalk show in the city.
The designer says that she has incorporated new, more American ideas into her designs since relocating to New York two seasons ago. Among them she counts graphic color, sharp, unexpected proportions, and uncluttered ease. For fall 2008, Staerk cites the sculptor Louise Nevelson as her muse for her collection titled “Bride of the Black Moon.”
“I stumbled upon a photo of her and for reasons I can’t quite explain, I was immediately to drawn in. There was a strength, and a mystery. Then, when I began looking into her work, the connection was just as immediate!”
“The work is quite dark, and textural; there’s something preconscious about the power it exerts. Louise Nevelson showed me that there is another way of being an American, and a New Yorker. You channel the energy of the city through yourself, your own personality and obsessions. This collection is a tribute to her, but really, she brought me back to me.”
The designer’s love for a dark palette and leather are obvious in her beautifully crafted fall collection. Staerk will be showing her Spring 2009 collection Sunday, September 7th from 5 pm–6pm at Bumble and Bumble.
For NYC denizens, Camilla Staerk has just opened her new STAERK boutique in Nolita. For the first time, shoppers will have access to the complete Staerk collections, including store exclusive and limited edition product. Besides selling the complete Staerk womenswear collection season-to-season, the store will also offer the full array of the brand’s shoes, bags, belts, scarves and swimwear, and is the sole retailer of recurring pieces such as Staerk’s crocheted leather clutches and unisex oxford shoes. Staerk is also reintroducing her range of sunglasses, produced by Selima Optique, and will be selling the limited edition styles at the store alongside her new capsule collection of jewelry.
