Faustine-steinmetz
source:voguecom
Up until now, Faustine Steinmetz has used art exhibit–style presentations to showcase her work. She set her trademark reworked denim in motion today with her first runway show at London Fashion Week. It was immediately clear, however, that Steinmetz wasn’t going to limit herself to jeans. The Parisian-born designer cut her teeth in the rarefied world of couture, but her fascination with fashion flies closer to the street—this season she was pondering other universal sartorial archetypes. After jeans, track pants are a close second in ubiquity—though some might argue that leggings have overtaken both!—and Steinmetz reinvented them in her own way, with versions that ran the gamut from lightly distressed to a mind-boggling intricate pair that looked like it was spun from Charlotte’s web. She had her name emblazoned up and down the legs of those pants, though her experimentations with logo dressing didn’t end there. Models came out toting ladylike handbags monogrammed with her initials, a cheeky and ingenious subversion of a Fendi baguette—one of the most iconic It bags of the early aughts.
Fashion’s obsession with the early aughts has been percolating for awhile now, but if there were any other throwback references here, they were far from literal. Steinmetz is part of a new millennial guard of designers in London taking their first steps toward the runway. Like many of her peers, her point of view is fiercely forward-thinking and original. In addition to chopped-up button-downs and logo tees, there were a series of artfully distressed jeans and denim jackets, a look that also bubbled up at the turn of the millennium. Whether they were layered up with paint or meshed together with thousands upon thousands of tiny trailing cotton strands, the “jeans” she showed were as rare and special as they come. With a diverse casting that included models of all shapes, sizes, colors, and ages—’90s modeling star Fran Kohlin made an appearance in a fantastic disheveled trench—Steinmetz grounded her collection in the real world, too. All in all, a thoroughly exemplary runway debut.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source:londonfashionweekcouk
Paris born Faustine Steinmetz began her studies at Atelier Chardon Savard in Paris before moving to London to complete her Masters in the prestigious Central Saint Martins under the guidance of Professor OBE Louise Wilson.
Having worked for the likes of Jeremy Scott and Henrik Viskov, Faustine set up her label in early 2013 after acquiring her first handloom. All of Faustine’s pieces are made inaccordance with her belief in craftsmanship over trend.