The thing about truly masterful designers (or artists in general) is that they continue to put out new things, play with new concepts and ideas, and yet you can tell almost immediately that it's their work. There is a certain signature je ne sais quoi in what they produce that you recognize as uniquely theirs. One might say this is how you tell an artist has come into his/her own and reached full artistic maturity.
I wasn't sure I could say the same of Camilla Staerk's early collections (she first landed on the fashion map almost 10 years ago). They seemed a bit haphazard and scattered, meandering a bit, like a novice writer's narrative. There were moments of sheer brilliance and offbeat moments that made you scratch your head a bit and wonder what she was thinking.
The last few collections though, seem a bit more focused, more purposeful and certain. It's interesting I picked up on the writerly aspect of her work, as Interview Magazine described her work early last year as "dark, severe, literary, and modern."
I don't know if I completely agree, because a lot of her pieces are also feminine, gentle, and fabled. Hailing from Denmark, Staerk says she's deeply influenced by the mythology and stories of her home country, from the tragedy of Hamlet to the stark modern lines of Danish furniture-making. At any rate she's someone I find interesting and will be following in the coming season.
