Same Style...but Sexier
Stampd LA Launches Womenswear Collection A/W 15
He knows the balance between what is luxury and what is street. Chris Stamp, Founder and Creative Director behind rapidly growing Los Angeles brand, Stampd brings an understated elegance and luxe to everyday dressing. The SoCal menswear designer that was just named GQ’s “Best New Menswear Designers in America” for 2015 and says he was ‘born wearing black’ has captured the same kind of casual chic, monochromatic aesthetic in his limited-edition womenswear collection, which launched online on November 17th.
In a modern approach to what the future of womenswear is, the brand is redefining the idea of androgynous dressing by introducing a neutral palette of their menswear designs in a more flattering, sexier cut. The brand’s signature nylon Strapped Bomber jacket is available in a cropped version for women, while high-waisted loose fit pants, side-slit maxi dresses, tees, jerseys, and sports tops have a distinct femininity. The collection contains the same high quality materials as the menswear, including neoprene, and performance tech fabrics, in a silhouette that complements the female form. Stampd is known for its design being in the details, the texture, the cut, something that Stamp admires about the Danish taste and attention to detail from frequent visits to the design capital of Copenhagen; “I’m kind of just a product of my environment wherever I go,” he says.
The successful womenswear launch can only be a sign of good things to come; Stamp revealed that the brand are opening their first ever brick and mortar retail space in Los Angeles in February 2016, which was designed by his good friends at Brooklyn-based architecture firm, Snarkitecture.
The successful womenswear launch can only be a sign of good things to come; Stamp revealed that the brand are opening their first ever brick and mortar retail space in Los Angeles in February 2016, which was designed by his good friends at Brooklyn-based architecture firm, Snarkitecture.
Interview
Your personal style is rooted in Stampd, which encompasses a super minimalist and monochromatic aesthetic. How do you keep this consistent while introducing seasonal trends into your designs?
We started from a more or less black and white color palette, but as we grow we’re not gonna be stuck strictly to that, while we’ll keeping it minimalistic. When we bring in colors, we’re a little bit more drawn to earth tones…there’s a level of understated elegance that’s carried through the collection. I’m not into using super bright colors, so it’s still gonna have that kind of saturated feel even if it is a color. You’ve said in the past that you “don’t like to use the word streetwear, ever, but at the core [you] make luxury streetwear.” Does it come from a place of wanting to differentiate from other streetwear brands, or that you don’t want to be limited by the label? I think what we’re doing is in a different lane to what you’d stereotypically label streetwear as. I think streetwear almost has a negative connotation that runs through it that’s like, oh there’s this urban lifestyle that streetwear emcompasses, but at the end of the day, streetwear is anything that you wear on a daily basis. That could be anything from Louis Vuitton shoes, Stampd denim, a Lanvin jacket and an Alexander Wang T-Shirt or something. I don’t like the the idea of streetwear being like, oh you’re this urban brand, you automatically tie in with that certain kind of market, which I think is a thing of the past. You were named one of the Best New Menswear Designers of 2015 by GQ! Has this kind of exposure translated at all in the buzz surrounding the Stampd’s womenswear launch this Nov 17th? How did the launch go? Surprisingly over the the last 3 to 4 years, we’ve been able to see our vision of the woman we sell to, you know 20% of our business is women. Whether that’s them buying hats or more smaller sizes in the guys pieces and liking that more tomboy kind of androgynous look. To introduce things that are more specific, cut wise to women has been rad. It’s awesome to see this whole transition of our core customers who are getting excited about new pieces we make, and then this new customer of girls where we’re making products that are more specific just to them. Each women’s piece you have is exclusive and limited to 100. Just something you’re trying out for the debut or will upcoming collections maintain the same exclusivity? There’s kind of two parts to this: We wanted to test and see how things would go and we wanted to be special. If you got it you got it. A one time thing. That’s how we started out with men’s too, very limited edition pieces. And then a slow progression into us doing larger quantities and opening up into a bigger distribution channel. How do you find the balance of what is luxury and what is street for the modern woman? I think it’s changing. Number one is accessibility to new designers that people haven’t had before because of the whole idea of social media. And a lot of combining different elements, it’s not like oh I’m draped in all Helmet Lang anymore; a lot of people are combining different style and pieces, they like pieces that are unique from different designers and also I guess a level of exclusivity to it. Wanting to have pieces that are not accessible to everyone. If you’re in the know, you’re in the know and I think that’s kind of the evolution of modern fashion. Who is the Stampd woman? I think she’s the younger modern woman, age 18 to early 30s. She has an appreciation for art, travel, and likes clothes in a different style, but likes to feel sexy at the same time. Can you elaborate on your design process for womenswear? I think it’s a take on this idea of making pieces that I haven’t really seen on the market. We got together a core group of friends that are close to my peers that I work with on a daily, and kind of just asked them like, yo, what do you think about this? How would you like this to be worn? That’s kind of how we moulded the collection together. Photo: Courtesy of Stampd
|
Photo: Courtesy of Stampd
I noticed on the Stampd site that women’s pieces are mixed in with men’s, as well, kind of like this gender neutral shopping experience. Is this done purposely as you hope some of the pieces can cross over sexes or is that just the merchandising setup? Yeah, that’s the whole idea of the collection really. A lot of the men’s pieces are made to be worn by women as well. We’re ordering in a lot more of the smaller sizes because of it, and a lot of the footwear we make, our smaller sizes sell out first. I think for girls there’s this transition of them wanting to dress like that, not necessarily just like guys, but a kind of tomboy type feel. I guess it was kind of important to us to make sure that they have something special for them, not like I’m gonna buy my boyfriend a t-shirt and buy myself the same in a smaller size. Now you can have the same stye and something slightly different and fitted a little bit more sexy. You’ve collaborated with a few brands now for menswear, GQ, Puma, Gap, and Japanese brand Monkeytime. Any designers you’d hope to collaborate with for womenswear? Not specifically; I like to know the person or the brand prior to us working with them as we work very closely. Not to say I don’t have any people that I admire but like just more of an organic relationship. That’s how the majority of our collaborations have come to life at this point. We meet and have lunch or go out and if there’s this general understanding and a good vibe between us then we take it to the next design level. And for womenswear I want that same organic process. Stampd has its roots embedded in Southern Cali, but do you see other parts of the world now influencing your aesthetic? Over the last 2 years I’ve been able to travel so much, and I think I’m kind of just a product of my environment wherever we go so, from being in Tokyo admiring the architecture and the level of minimalism they have there, and also seeing things in Copenhagen and how their taste level is super driven by attention to detail. Little nuances from each place are definitely buried into if not directly a piece of clothing, it’s more of an attitude of the aesthetic. Where do you envision the brand and yourself to be in another five years? I really want to put the focus directly into our business, and honing it in on the people that are buying directly from us. What they want and what their needs are. From there expanding what we’re doing with our online platform and then from there getting into brick and mortar retail. We’re opening our first store which is gonna be in Los Angeles in February. From there we see it growing into something in Tokyo and hopefully New York in the next five years. Favorite Stampd piece? I love our bomber jackets, it’s one of my go-tos. One of the newest ones which we did with Monkeytime is in an olive, we removed the straps from the back and put them on the sleeves, I love that. And the lighter weight jackets we have for next season with the technical fabric are really cool. Anything else you can share with what’s to come? Yeah we’re showing in New York for men’s fashion week between 1-4th Feb. We haven’t solidified the dates yet, but it’s really the first time that we’ll be showing in that kind of platform. That’s exciting. And after that we’ll show in Paris. It’ll be a presentation, a certain space with a two hour window where you can go and check out the clothes and understand the aesthetic, as well as hear directly from me and my design team about the process. We’ll go more minimal with the display, let the styling in the pieces speak for themselves. Most likely we’ll be working with our friends, a Brooklyn-based architectural firm who’s also designing our store, called Snarkitecture. So they’re gonna help us curate the aesthetic of what we do for the presentation and have that carry into what we do with the store. Follow Stampd on Facebook, Instagram, Blog |