Initial reaction:
Our denim dreams come true. Faustine Steinmetz took her techniques to the next level in her quest to make everyday clothing special and elevate industrial pieces. Jeans came hand-felted and brushed with orange and white details to outline the stitching in a trompe l’oeil effect, or painted in silicone with thick, whipped strokes that were echoed in jewellery and hair pieces by Lara Jensen.
Precious basics:
Intrigued and saddened by the way we consume clothes in an increasingly mindless manner, the designer believes that even basic pieces are precious and should be treated as such. To her, things shouldn't be discarded when they start to show wear and tear – she played to this with threadbare sweatshirts and a sportswear one-piece with a frayed logo waistband, in a nod to the obsession with pristine logomania. Until now, Steinmetz has been hand-weaving all her fabrics, but a sponsorship this season from Cotton USA meant that she was suddenly able to buy sustainable, responsibly sourced materials. But she still gave them special treatment: “It's a bit like a painting,” she noted of the adding of felt and paint to her denim canvas and the way she had digitally printed blurry Photoshop lines onto jeans. "This was a reflection on if I were to buy fabric, like other people do – and their life is much easier, I’m sure – where would I want to take it, and why would I do that?"
Extra special extras:
There is something nostalgic and teen dream-like about Steinmetz’s universe, and the models’ French manis, 90s zigzag partings and glossed lips underscored the youthful mood. A new collaboration with shoe designer Julia Thomas resulted in brilliant trainers resembling smudged, squished versions of Nikes that had gone wrong somewhere along the assembly line – like deliberately glitched counterfeits.
