Lace and basketball are an unusual pairing. Unless you're Dennis Rodman or Astrid Andersen. This season, the Danish designer takes it there with delicate lace jerseys, fur-trimmed tank tops, and organza jogging pants. "Astrid pulls off a real sexiness with her sportswear," says Fashion East director LULU KENNEDY. The young designer has showed with Fashion East at London Fashion Week for the past three seasons now. And this season, as she prepares for her first on-schedule solo show in June, her Spring/Summer 2013 collection is also on the racks at OC for the first time—making her a real fashion double threat. We're super excited to be stocking Astrid's pieces and even more excited to see what comes next. I called her up to check in.
Shop all Astrid Andersen here.
Alice Newell-Hanson: Hi Astrid. So you’re in Denmark right now? Where do you spend most time, there or London?
Astrid Andersen: Yeah, I’m in Copenhagen right now. It’s very much back and forth these days, because we have the show next month.
Which city do you think you're more influenced by?
London, definitely. In Copenhagen, I like to be able to step back from everything. It’s a bit of an escape really.
Sportswear is so strong in London—is it as visible in Copenhagen?
No, not at all. The Scandinavian point of view is always very precise and fixated on what is good taste and what is bad taste. I think in London there’s room for people—I wouldn’t say to have bad taste—but to reference bad taste without it being frowned upon. I really love that about London.
As well as sportswear, there's a religious layer to the Spring/Summer 2013 collection, with the stained-glass-window graphics, for example.
The whole concept for Spring/Summer 2013 was how the gym is replacing the church, but cross-referenced with basketball. The community that you used to find at church, those boys are now finding the same kind of community at the gym. In London, and in Copenhagen too actually, you see these guys hanging out in groups and you know they all work out with the same program because they're all toned in the same way.
And what is it about basketball that speaks to you?
I find my way back to that aesthetic because, for me, it’s just the most attractive. The season before this I was really into a basketball player called Vlade Divac, from former Yugoslavia. He was one of the first players to come to the NBA from Europe. There are lots of stories within the basketball universe that fascinate me. But I think overall it’s how [the players] walk, and talk to each other, in a specific way. It’s a very masculine reference that I always like to throw into my work.
The fabrics you used for Spring/Summer 2013 are a strong contrast to that.
I love the mixture of sportswear references with lace and chiffon to give [the pieces] a different dimension. I reference a guy who’s super tough on the outside, who goes to the gym and is super buff, but then I like to expose the sensitive side as well—because he’s insecure about fitting into the world and he’s dependent on the guys he goes to the gym with.
What can we expect for Spring/Summer 2014?
I went to Florence recently and saw this amazing collection of stones. That was really powerful. And so were the stories about how they collect them in the mines. Florence w
Shop all Astrid Andersen here.
Alice Newell-Hanson: Hi Astrid. So you’re in Denmark right now? Where do you spend most time, there or London?
Astrid Andersen: Yeah, I’m in Copenhagen right now. It’s very much back and forth these days, because we have the show next month.
Which city do you think you're more influenced by?
London, definitely. In Copenhagen, I like to be able to step back from everything. It’s a bit of an escape really.
Sportswear is so strong in London—is it as visible in Copenhagen?
No, not at all. The Scandinavian point of view is always very precise and fixated on what is good taste and what is bad taste. I think in London there’s room for people—I wouldn’t say to have bad taste—but to reference bad taste without it being frowned upon. I really love that about London.
As well as sportswear, there's a religious layer to the Spring/Summer 2013 collection, with the stained-glass-window graphics, for example.
The whole concept for Spring/Summer 2013 was how the gym is replacing the church, but cross-referenced with basketball. The community that you used to find at church, those boys are now finding the same kind of community at the gym. In London, and in Copenhagen too actually, you see these guys hanging out in groups and you know they all work out with the same program because they're all toned in the same way.
And what is it about basketball that speaks to you?
I find my way back to that aesthetic because, for me, it’s just the most attractive. The season before this I was really into a basketball player called Vlade Divac, from former Yugoslavia. He was one of the first players to come to the NBA from Europe. There are lots of stories within the basketball universe that fascinate me. But I think overall it’s how [the players] walk, and talk to each other, in a specific way. It’s a very masculine reference that I always like to throw into my work.
The fabrics you used for Spring/Summer 2013 are a strong contrast to that.
I love the mixture of sportswear references with lace and chiffon to give [the pieces] a different dimension. I reference a guy who’s super tough on the outside, who goes to the gym and is super buff, but then I like to expose the sensitive side as well—because he’s insecure about fitting into the world and he’s dependent on the guys he goes to the gym with.
What can we expect for Spring/Summer 2014?
I went to Florence recently and saw this amazing collection of stones. That was really powerful. And so were the stories about how they collect them in the mines. Florence w