25 years since designer Camilla Stærk launched her eponymous label, the Dane is returning to the limelight. To mark the anniversary, she is set to release 11 archival pieces – prompting us to look back at her beginnings and how a Danish It Girl came to dress the masses.
It’s been 25 years since Camilla Stærk, she of the turbans, silver-screen eyebrows, and all-black wardrobe, launched her label. “Fashion is the way in which I found my creative voice,” said the designer, who will mark the anniversary with a release of 11 pieces from across her archive. Among them is a woven leather armour clutch, to which a fine chain has been added, by customer request, to allow for cross-body wear.
For Stærk, who has been actively exploring the world of interiors, that bag has acted like a compass directing her back to her roots. When Noma cofounder Mads Refslund opened Ilis in Brooklyn last year, he invited the designer to create uniforms for the staff, as well as rugs and lamps. “His brief to me was, ‘I just want you to do you,’ and he kept pointing at my signature clutch.” The designer created draped leather fixtures and others with corset-lacing details. These last nod to Karen Blixen, aka Isak Dinesen, whose work and style have been a “source of fascination” for the designer since having read Out of Africa and Seven Gothic Tales as a student in Denmark.
The Leather Drape Pendant by Stærk for Ilis. Photo: Courtesy of Stærk
Globe lamps by Stærk for Design Within Reach. Photo: Courtesy of Stærk
The Leather Corset Spotlights by Stærk for Ilis. Photo: Courtesy of Stærk
Furnishings and four-legged friends preceded fashion in Stærk’s life; her mother is a horsewoman and her father established a respected furniture company called Botium. (The designer’s truly gigantic oversize bag, she explained, nods to those her dad developed “as a beautiful gift-wrapping alternative to deliver the large Verner Panton glass trays that he would gift to people frequently.”) While Stærk started playing with her style as a teenager, it was never, she said, with the aim of being a designer. When it came time to graduate high school, she was “very close to going the furniture route… but then I really had an urge to find my own creative voice and rebel against my family in a nice way.”
After completing a foundation course at London College of Fashion, Stærk enrolled at Ravensbourne College. During the next-to-last year, the fledgling designer landed an internship in New York City with Patrick Robinson, and that experience, she said, “confirmed the fact I want to do this.” She returned to London with the idea of launching her brand with her graduate collection, a career move that wasn’t as common in 2000 as it is today, and the planets aligned. Stærk showed her final project to a buyer at Browns Focus, who placed an order. “I didn’t tell anybody, but she told Hilary Alexander at the Daily Telegraph,” the designer related, “so the day after the graduation show Hilary did an amazing piece about it, and that led to a phone call from Fashion East, which was just starting that season, I was offered to be one of the four designers.”
Six years later Stærk fulfilled her dream of moving to New York, showing her first collection in the city, for spring 2007, days after landing at Scandinavia House. A mid-’00s It girl, the designer was her own best model, and over time her work became almost synonymous with her personal style, which might be summed up by the title of her fall 2008 collection, Black Bride of the Moon.
Asked to elaborate on the development of her aesthetic, the designer cites Old Hollywood as well as her grandmothers as contributing a “past-time appreciation to what I do – even though I hope it’s definitely modern too.” Stærk settled into all-black as part of her quest for simplicity. In school, a monochrome palette allowed her to focus “on silhouettes, the sculptural elements, the tactile textures, and how they would work together. I really loved the focus of that. And then there’s not having to think about [getting dressed every day],” she added. “I have a uniform, and that changes just with tiny little details, but it is always a uniform. And the head wrap I adopted during college, just to not have to think about my hair, and then it became part of my look.”
Camilla Stærk on her Stærk Signature Chaise No. 1 . Photo: Rich Royal / Courtesy of Stærk
Stærk’s Edition Drop for spring 2026 is a distillation of her lean, forceful, and subtly erotic work. The dresses, skirts, and tops in the offering take inspiration from Martha Graham, Robert Mapplethorpe, French films, and the designer’s memories of an idyllic childhood in the Danish countryside. “The last few years I’ve been very focused on my home and collection and launching my first piece of furniture and sort of honoring my family roots, which has been incredible and very important to me,” Stærk notes, “but my fashion has never gone away – it has lived online in a curated version even though I haven’t done shows or offered it wholesale for a long time. And also, I never wanted to go away.”
The lace Madonna shift dress from Stærk’s fall 2005 La Maîtresse collection, which takes its title from the 1975 film. Introduced as the Hostess dress, it was renamed after Madonna started wearing it. Stine Goya wore this in the show. Photo: Karen Collins / Courtesy of Camilla Stærk
The leather and lace Mapplethorpe bustier dress, from Stærk’s fall 2009 Photographer collection, inspired by Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith. Photo: Karen Collins / Courtesy of Camilla Stærk
The leather and lace Mapplethorpe bustier dress, from Stærk’s fall 2009 Photographer collection, inspired by Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith. . Photo: Karen Collins / Courtesy of Camilla Stærk
The silk chiffon and lace Swan camisole in silk chiffon and lace, from from Stærk’s spring 2006 Dancer collection inspired by Martha Graham. The leather Riding miniskirt from Stærk’s 2016 collection. “Inspired by my horse-riding upbringing,” the designer said, this piece has “equestrian-wear construction. Since before I could walk I was so so happy to be on horseback or just spend time with the horses, and also the dogs and cats. Happy place.” . Photo: Karen Collins / Courtesy of Camilla Stærk
The stretch wool and lace Muse halterneck skirt from Stærk’s fall 2007 Naked Muse collection, “based on the artists’ muse, who beautifully illustrate the power of the female form.” . Photo: Karen Collins / Courtesy of Camilla Stærk
The Maîtresse lace shift dress from Stærk’s fall 2005 collection, inspired by the French film of the same name. The bobbinet lace Vanitas lingerie set from Stærk’s 2012 Vanitas collection, named for a painting of the same title by the Danish painter Hans Henrik Lerfeldt. “I knew of this artist from an early age because of my dad’s deep interest in different Danish artists sand I was always drawn to his work,” said Stærk. “The same huge framed poster of one of his pieces has followed me since my teens—and is still in my apartment here today.” . Photo: Karen Collins / Courtesy of Camilla Stærk
The leather and lace Mapplethorpe bustier dress, from Stærk’s fall 2009 Photographer collection, inspired by Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith. . Photo: Karen Collins / Courtesy of Camilla Stærk
The pleated silk georgette Martha blouse with neck tie, from spring 2006. The handmade leather Paillete dress on chiffon from Stærk’s spring 2008 collection “inspired by the female characters in Woody Allen films throughout the years.” . Photo: Karen Collins / Courtesy of Camilla Stærk
The silk georgette Knot-back gown from Stærk’s spring 2005 collection inspired “by both the band Nirvana and the bicentennial of Hans Christian Andersen.” The hand-crafted leather Signature clutch, developed for Stærk’s graduation/spring 2001 collection. “The saddle reference, like all the equestrian elements always present in my work, comes from growing up on a farm in the deep Danish countryside, inspired by my mom who has dedicated her life to horse breeding and my dad whose passion was grounded in Danish furniture, They had two different worlds which came together beautifully, in my view.”. Photo: Karen Collins / Courtesy of Camilla Stærk
Originally published on Vogue.com