Cecilie Bahnsen Collaborates With Charles & Keith For The Most Whimsical Steppers

Copenhagen designer, Cecilie Bahnsen, is truly one to march to the beat of her own drum and is redefining Scandinavian style as we know it. A finalist in the LMVH Design Prize 2017, her collections have since been stocked at major international retailers and have garnered fans all around the world.

Unapologetically romantic and feminine, Cecilie Bahnsen’s signature pieces are that of a voluminous silhouettes, covered in intricate yet understated embroidery details. While femininity in fashion is almost always associated with being uncomfortable and cumbersome, Bahnsen focuses on lightweight and comfortable materials, empowering its wearer with confidence and strength with its effortless yet dynamic shapes. Her unique point of view is translated into her latest collaboration with Singaporean shoe and accessories brand, Charles & Keith, where she revisited two of her most precious fabrics and gave them new life in these shoes.

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“The idea was to be truthful to Cecilie’s DNA, her unique take on women’s femininity and being able to retranslate her poetic dresses into shoes. This collaboration was also about creating something unique and responsible, have a positive message through the collection. Therefore, it came as an evidence to upcycle Cecilie’s beautiful fabrics to create a new whole one, a patchwork made bespoke and the usage of a Recycled Satin Material for the hand-drawn quilted embroidery styles”, says Charles & Keith of the special project.

The beautiful collection comprises four styles: three Mary Jane designs and a mule, takes inspiration from school uniforms, a recurring theme in Cecilie Bahnsen’s pieces. While the steppers have been mindfully crafted with the designer’s own Recycled Satin fabrics of quilted embroidery and patchwork, the dust bags are, too, stitched from leftover cuts of fabrics from previous seasons.

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“I’ve always been fascinated by school uniforms. I think that explains why I loved the Mary Jane shoe in the Charles & Keith’s collection so much. It’s a traditional school-girlish shoe, but it also has that quality of a masculine-feminine contrast that I’m always looking for. Historically, the Mary Jane was not just a shoe for girls. Right into the 20th century little boys wore them too. We made ours super feminine, more lady-like than the shoes we’ve done before, working with patchwork and hand-drawn-embroidery. I think the combination of the Charles & Keith classic shape and our touch is very beautiful. It’s been really exciting to see how we can translate our universe into a shoe. It almost felt like we were morphing our dresses into a shoe,” Cecilie Bahnsen says of the inspiration behind the shoes.

A well-rounded and thoughtfully-designed collection, these shoes are one to be treasured, and will bring a spark of magic with every step. 

The collection will be exclusively available from 25 May 2020 at www.ceciliebahnsen.com and www.charlesandkeith.com.

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