Astrid Andersen holds a MA in menswear from the prestigious Royal College of Art, where she finished in 2010, and a BA from Teko in Denmark. In 2010, she was nominated in VOGUE Talent 2010 as well as being a finalist in ITS NINE.
Whilst studying at the Royal College of Art, Astrid won the Brioni Creativity and Innovation Award and the River Island MA Student Bursary Award designing 3 looks for the high street retailer.
Her graduate collection received huge acclaim from the industry and jump-started her own label. Now, musicians like ASAP Rocky and NARS are wearing her clothes, being the perfect brand ambassadors with the street attitude that Astrid is inspired by and wants to design for.
About her inspiration Astrid Andersen says:
“I´m very much into guys that want to hang out in a group. Whether it’s at the gym, or basketball court, or if it’s just down the street, I always love when you can see a bunch of guys and, you know, they found a similar aesthetic. I find that really interesting”
In 2011 Astrid Andersen held her first independent show in Copenhagen receiving enthusiastic appraisal both in Denmark and internationally. The show was an installation of buff models with massive pecs and abs working out in a gym wearing the designers cropped mesh sports jerseys and neon puffer jackets – a rather provocative show for the conservative Scandinavian fashion industry. About Copenhagen the designer says:
“It might be a bit difficult for me and my aesthetic. When you look at the rest of fashion week here, for menswear at least, it’s very classical. So it’s never really been my intention to be a “Danish” brand. I work between Copenhagen and London”.
Proving her international quality, Astrid Andersen showed in the Kopenhagen Fur show which launched Copenhagen Fashion Week in February 2013, alongside designers such as Maison Christian Lacroix and Gaspard Yurkievich. Her collection showed fur in the most innovative and inspiring way, with show highlights including a purple mink coat in bomber jacket style with fox sleeves in purple and natural brown. It also featured a shiny turquoise bomber jacket with turquoise degradé mink and gold zippers, along with black shiny sweat pants with ASTRID ANDERSEN written down the side in sheared mink.
The collection was sporty and classy and underlined the theme of the show: Real men wear fur!
Astrid Andersen is a designer to watch both when it comes to modern street wear and designing with fur in an unpretentious way.
For more information on Astrid please click here. She is also on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
Written by Fur Futures member and REMIX 2013 Bronze Award winner – Laerke Koldskov.