Stel is all about skater girl cool for autumn/winter '26 taking its streetwear to the ramps
Move over Avril Lavigne – this season, Stel is all about the skater girl. “It was a rant of mine,” explains Astrid Andersen, the brand’s founder and creative director. “I wanted to make denim you can dance in and tailoring you can skate in.” And that ethos is fully realised in the brand’s AW26 collection.
In a lookbook and campaign fronted by American pro skater Beatrice Domond, the silhouettes are loose (though Andersen is quick to clarify, “not necessarily baggy”), with adjustable sides and a new introduction of silks – a long-held ambition that allows the brand to continue elevating its quality. The result is a collection bound by an unmistakable code of comfort, woven into every piece.
Photo: STEL
Photo: STEL
According to the designer, this is something that stems from her background as a menswear designer. “When you are trained as a menswear designer, comfort is a premise; you cannot avoid it,” she explains. “You would never see men’s trousers where comfort hasn’t been considered, even in the practical elements such as the pockets, fly, or lining.” To Andersen, such considerations lean into one longstanding social narrative, “the idea that men somehow get dressed for themselves and women are expected to dress up for the opposite sex.”
“Skating for me always had this cool energy,” notes the designer. “You don’t see a girl with a skateboard and not think she is cool. You immediately want to talk to her understand how she became so free. There is something very liberating about the skate culture.” Such nuance is heightened all the more for Andersen when she takes into account that skateboarding has seemed to be a male-dominated sport, one of the reasons she holds Domond in such high regard: “She’s just so awesome.”
Photo: STEL
Andersen acknowledges that skateboarding has its own style, a streetwear-dominated aesthetic, something that aligns with her own philosophy. “It’s an element that is so closely connected to how I think of clothes,” she explains. “There is a premise in my design signature that caters to that mindset, demonstrating how tailoring can be non-restrictive.”
See the full Stel AW26 lookbook, as modelled by Domond, below.
