Hand-Loomed Sculpture

LONDON, United Kingdom —  "A lot of people have told us handmade product is not commercial enough, because of when we show and how we produce," said French CSM graduate Faustine Steinmetz, who debuted her label in Spring 2015 with a labour-intensive collection of unpicked recycled denim, hand-loomed into new pieces. However, with the help of her boyfriend and business partner, Steinmetz has leveraged her couture-like craftsmanship (she recently met with Paris' Chambre Syndicale) to build a buzzy brand aimed at discerning consumers with an eco-conscience.

To do that, Steinmetz labours over "crazy show pieces for the press — which can take four people four weeks to make, sculpting from cotton," before harnessing media interest to build out her denim and accessible knitwear lines — stocked in Opening Ceremony, Selfridges and Dover Street Market — where she recognises a broader commercial opportunity.

This season, Steinmetz was inspired by sculpture. Her presentation, staged in Tate Britain’s Clore Galley, consisted of four vignettes grouped by colour: cerulean blue, temple marble white, marigold and fawn. Unfortunately, however, her models, who had been boxed into crates as part of the creative display, were only visible through arrow-slit sized cut-outs.

The fuzzy Pan-like leggings and sculpted metallic breastplates that were visible landed somewhere between the chryselephantine statue of Athena in the Acropolis in Athens, and the satyrs and shepherdesses in the surrounding Attican hills. Undulating waves appeared on plush trousers and tops, with some becoming hanging appendages reminiscent of the Trojan priest Laocoön's twisting serpentine killers, while ribbed tunics had added eyelets and ties that enabled wearers to sculpt the clothes around their bodies. The brand's first foray into accessories came in the form of envelope clutch versions of these chest-pieces.