Danish designer Julie Eilenberger isn’t afraid of change. She moved to London the day after completing her fashion degree and has set up her self-titled label in twelve months since. A/W12 steers in a new direction for Eilenberger: where her previous work focused on playful silhouettes and vivid colour, the range feels "grown up", lingering on bold stripes, clean lines and cool hues reminiscent of the earth and sea. The result is a sleek and wearable edit of loose separates, solid knits and coats that effortlessly balance detail with simplicity.

Julie’s often ironic, always unique vision is not entirely new to the fashion scene; she has already shown at Berlin Fashion Week three times and designed a collection for Adidas along the way. The savvy designer gave Dazed Digital a lesson on the history of the humble stripe and explained why she doesn’t miss being a teenager one bit.

Dazed Digital: You’ve moved around a lot, what draws you to travel?
Julie Eilenberger: I grew up in the Danish country side, really protected and idyllic. My mother took me on a lot of trips to exotic countries, which made me long to travel from a really early age.

DD: When did you decide you wanted to be a fashion designer?
Julie Eilenberger: I come from an artistic family so it was always on the cards for me to do something creative. My interest in fashion started as a child in Denmark but it wasn’t until I moved to Italy to study I realised I wanted to be a designer.

DD: You headed in such a clean direction for A/W12. Why did you decide on stripes?
Julie Eilenberger: I was reading a book about the history of stripes, dating back to the middle ages, where any striped textile were thought of as the devil’s cloth and was only used for prostitutes and criminals, always in brown, cream and black tones. I wanted to give all this a really sporty treatment.

DD: What’s up next for you?
Julie Eilenberger: I’m working on the next collection. It’s about the restless mind of a teenager and how they can change their mood as the wind blows. I went through so many fazes as a teenager, from being a wannabe hippie and listening to the Beatles to wearing Spice Girls t-shirts and saving up for Buffalo shoes. I’m so glad to be past all that!

Photography Lena Emery
Styling Grace Joel 
Hair and make-up Linda Andersson
Model Sophie Yall