STAERK Restarts

ABOVE: PHOTO COURTESY OF CAMILLA STAERK. PHOTOGRAPHER: CHRISTIAN LARSEN. MAKEUP: LIZZIE ARNESON/BRIDGE ARTISTS. HAIR: BLAKE BURKHOLDER/JED ROOT.  MODEL: MICHELE HICKS.

Camilla Staerk, the Danish designer, New York social fixture, and purveyor of all things romantically gothic, recently re-launched her e-commerce site Staerk.com. Staerk’s new shopping destination offers a comprehensive look into her eponymous label’s world: sensual leather and lace dresses and separates named after Helmut Newton and Robert Mapplethorpe; film noir-era brimmed hats, veils, and seamed stocking-bootlets; home décor essentials; and, naturally, Staerk’s signature woven leather accessories.

Boudoir-inspired accoutrement aside, the most exciting development of the new site is Staerk’s collection of original short films. Since 2010, Staerk has produced a short every 18-months or so with close friends and collaborators, including Helena Christensen (the pair also collaborated on a limited edition jewelry collection), Barnaby Roper, and Christian Larsen. The latest film installment Here is an intoxicating exploration of lust and yearning, created with Larsen and singer-songwriter Louis Epstein and streaming exclusively below.

In it, Staerk and Epstein lounge quixotically on the designer’s “Blixen” horn-printed rug among thick clouds of cigarette smoke. Much like the aforementioned garments, the rug is named after Staerk muse Karen Blixen, the author of Out of Africa.

Staerk shared, “Film is a very important aspect of storytelling for me. Its dimensionality allows me to further express not just the visual story, but along with it, a feeling, personal place, and the inspiration behind my designs.” The seductively hedonistic vignette is vaguely reminiscent of Julianne Moore and Colin Firth in Tom Ford’s A Single Man, and perfectly encapsulates Staerk’s heady aesthetic.
 

FOR MORE ON STAERK, VISIT THE LABEL’S WEBSITE.