Refinery 29: Independent Style, Defined and Refined

Fashion: All

Sign Up For Refinery29 and WIN BIG at Urban Outfitters

April 16, 2008

womenswear designers designer profiles costumes

Profiles

Stage Beauty

Costumer Christian Joy softens up her chic-punk ideas for the street. By Valery Joseph


christianjoy_instory.jpg


After years of designing stage costumes for rock's raven-haired wild child, Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, costumer Christian Joy was ready to take it down a notch. "I wanted to do something more wearable and basic," she says. "After working with Karen for such a long time, I wanted to challenge myself to do something different."

She refers of course to the rocker-by-way-of-carnivale-ingenue looks—from wildly patterned jumpers to poufy futuristic bodysuits—she masterminded for O, which helped amplify the singer's outlandish stage persona. "In a way, the costume stuff is limiting, as it is so specialized," Joy says. "I was really interested in exploring another avenue of fashion, and ready-to-wear seemed like the ideal challenge."

The switch seemed to be a smart move. The designer's debut spring 2008 line, a thoroughly modern but whimsical collection of dresses and separates, makes a somewhat subdued rocker statement in a sharp all-black-and-white palette (and, yep, that's O in the designer's lookbook shots). Though Joy's influences are varied—she points out Russian Constructivism as a reference—the real inspiration for the collection was a little more simplified. "When it comes down to it," says Joy, "these are really just clothes I would wear myself."


christianjoy_instory2.jpg


Christian Joy is available in New York at Eva, 227 Mulberry Street, 212-925-3208, and in Los Angeles at Milk, 8209 West 3rd Street, 323-951-0330. For more information, go to www.christianjoy.us.

 
  • Fashion

    Bottom Line

    Trend Watch: Bottom Line

    Pleats, volume, and a little crop define the big trouser of the moment.

  • Pipeline

    Sneakers on the Straße: Le Gang's All Here

    Just off of Kastanienallee, the main drag in Berlin's up-and-coming Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood, li...

  • Shopping News

    Spaghetti Chandelier

    Ebay Blog: Spaghetti Chandelier

    Remember these? Up close the finish is sort of funky (just like plastic spaghetti) but illuminated from the interior, these globes are totally gorgeous. —CB

    Spaghetti Chandelier

  • Style and People

    Peaches Geldof

    My Style: Peaches Geldof

    The British girl-about-town talks fashion, music, and her upcoming debut as designer.

  • Travel and Guides

    Wagons East

    Wagons East

    The Best New Hamptons Pit-Stops.

  • Music

    07/23/08

    The Kiss Off—Brace

    This new Brooklyn band lists Echo and the Bunnymen and David Bowie among their influences and you can tell. There's plenty of drama and paranoia in the vocals and swelling keyboards...

About Fashion
From the most promising up-and-coming designers to the latest trend emerging from the streets of Paris, Los Angeles, or New York, Refinery29's indie fashion content is always on the cutting-edge. Check out our latest objects of desire, new store openings worldwide, and find out what our favorite new designers are doing in the studio as well as the shops.