Great Dane

‘I think it’s just something that is in our genes; we don’t make things that are too baroque, it’s all about a clean, clear message,’ explains women’s wear designer Louise Amstrup. Her views on Scandinavian design are justified by her own recent fashion collections. Structured skirts were seen alongside tailored jumpsuits in her spring/summer line, while zip details, jersey, silk and contrasting fabric panels were in keeping with the modern, feminine edge.

Danish-born Amstrup graduated in 2003 from the Akademie Mode Design in Dusseldorf, and has worked with designers such as Jonathan Saunders, Catharine Walker and Alexander McQueen since. She is quick in stating that she doesn’t feel influenced by their work as such, but by their approach to design itself. ‘I like Nicolas Ghesquiere at Balenciaga for instance; he tries to renew himself and I like his work with experimental textiles.’ A piece of advice Amstrup has for new designers and graduates is that it is important before you set anything up that you define your style, and ‘know what you want to do, and why you want to do it’.

‘Copenhagen Fashion Week is a great forum to be part of,’ says the brown haired 31-year-old, ‘and London, I always enjoy London.’ It’s not the first time Amstrup has shown at either; running her company for almost four years, she’s no stranger to the catwalk and prestigious Fashion Weeks. ‘Copenhagen is growing, it is getting more attention internationally, but I am a London based designer, so for me to show here is essential, you know. Eventually the Danish thing will become an addition.’

As well as numerous Fashion Weeks and recently the Vauxhall Fashion Scout events, Amstrup presented her work at the Copenhagen Climate Summit last December. She used sustainable materials to create a small collection for the design competition, held by C.L.A.S.S. for the Fashion Summit. ‘The thing is, for many designers it is very hard to just go 100 per cent sustainable,’ she explains, ‘I think the important thing is I took part in the Climate Conference in Denmark, and it was shown that there are so many ways that you can approach it.’ Coming from a country where environmental issues are important, Amstrup believes it is the consumers’ wants that need to change and not just the industry, in order for more sustainable materials to be used in design.

Her latest offering of autumn/winter designs continues the modern aesthetic of her collections. With inspiration drawn from ‘The City of Lost Children’, a French, dystopian fairytale, Amstrup’s work using feathers, black mesh and contrasting dramatic prints and textures see her designs take a slightly more sinister turn for the forthcoming season. For the rest of the year she will be working on her main line collections, developing her creative ideas and establishing her diffusion line. ‘This will be the next step. It’s already started a little bit, but it will be properly introduced in the summer. It’s exciting, and we’ll see how everything goes.’