Published 21:02, February the 2nd, 2009
Next big thing
At just 23 years old, former Parsons The New School for Design student Catherine Holstein has caught the attention of major fashion editors and celebrities alike. As she prepares for New York Fashion Week, she shrugs off the pressure.
Every season, without fail, the fashion media unofficially christens a small group of designers The Ones To Watch. It’s no different from what happens in music, film, art and every other corner of the pop culture world, really.
But the fashion realm is a bit smaller than the others. That means the few chosen fashion newbies get much more scrutiny than most.
“You’re only as good as your last collection,” says Catherine Holstein. “With each one, you want it to be more well-received. I think everyone at this stage feels a certain amount of pressure,” adds the 23-year-old, who has achieved The Next Big Thing status thanks to a strong women’s wear line, which is equal parts painfully cool and geek chic.
It also boasts support from famous tastemakers such as Mary-Kate Olsen, Proenza Schouler and Mischa Barton.
Holstein began honing her aesthetic at the ripe old age of 4, when she began dressing up in her three brothers’ clothes.
“I was very meticulous about getting dressed. And I can remember rating the girls’ who I thought were best-dressed in kindergarten,” the California native adds.
Her older sister, who worked as a designer with Yves Saint Laurent and Christian Dior, gave her an early sense of the business side of fashion.
And her preteen years spent living and gallery hopping in London (a move spurred by her father, who worked in oil, and wanted to expose the family to more arts and culture) led to her fascination with color, which she credits as her main influence.
As she prepares to show her fall 2009 collection during New York Fashion Week in one of the worst economic climates the world has seen, her outlook is a mix of cheerful realism.
She has felt the effects of the recession firsthand — one of her sponsors for Fashion Week recently pulled out after budget cuts.
“I’ve had to cut accounts with small stores because I don’t know if they’ll be around much longer. It definitely has all been a setback,” she says.
The R-word aside, her fall collection will be all about romanticism in the form of drapery and purple and beige tones.
Her presentation will be a smaller-scale production, but it’s definitely happening.
“Granted, I’m young, naïve and stupid. But we’ve been through hard times before. I hope we’ll get tired of being so negative about the economy. The only thing that will help things improve is to think positive,” she adds.
