Surface To Air – An Interview with Head of Womenswear Stine Riis

At times, one comes across an irreverent encounter between creative minds. One that is neither obvious nor predictable, but simply founded on a sense of profound understanding. When Stine Riis, a former London College of Fashion graduate and Aldric Speer, Creative Director of Surface To Air, met, something just clicked. Riis, who worked on her eponymous label before moving on to becoming the new head of womenswear of the Parisian chic label presented her first collection during the recently held Paris Fashion Week. After viewing the collection, we agreed on speaking over the phone when things had unwound a little to find out more about her new venture. We ended up speaking about the diversity between the pristine quietness of Copenhagen and the bohemian grit of Paris, intuitive music and elegant samurais.

Stine, where are you today and who is with you?
I’m actually in a cab on my way from the airport to downtown Paris, as I just flew in from Copenhagen and it’s just me and the cab driver.

We already know you from your capsule collection for H&M and your inspirational show with your own collection during Copenhagen Fashion Week last winter – could you give our readers a short background on your creative life?
Creativity to me is about having your own aesthetics and an urge to create and unfold your imagination and inner life. Very early on I found great satisfaction in making ideas come to life and I’ve always had a very vivid imagination. At first, however, I was quite hesitant to pursue a career within a creative field. Nonetheless, this urge to explore my imagination persistently remained. Therefore I moved to London to study womenswear at LCF. During this period, I had the chance to immerse myself completely into art, design, architecture and to develop a professional approach to creativity in terms of research, references and process.

You recently joined Surface To Air as their new Head of Womenswear, can you remember how your first conversation with Creative Director Aldric Speer was? After he contacted me, we spoke on Skype briefly, but that really doesn’t count as a proper conversation. After that, I flew to Paris and we talked for five hours non-stop. During this dynamic conversation I gained a much better insight into the brand’s philosophy. To me the DNA was really personifying its founders and therefore also Aldric, hence it was really important for me to get to know him well. The most important dialogue of course was about if we could agree on a direction for Surface To Air, but actually that turned out to be quite easy. We understood each other well.

We recently viewed your debut collection for the brand during Paris Fashion Week – could you explain the collection a little to our readers?
The AW14 collection is an attempt to take S2A in a new and more mature direction whilst maintaining the effortlessly chic and sexy feel to the brand. The inspiration came from the Samurai’s armour and their everyday way of dressing in kimonos. Here, I especially looked at the attitude of perhaps a modern-day female samurai, someone like Claire Boucher (ed. the musician aptly named Grimes). The samurais mixed different textures, subtle prints, always with blocks of black and we translated this inspiration into modern, wearable pieces.

Hailing from Denmark and knowing your previous work, in how far did you bring a sense of Nordic minimalism and functionality to the brand’s DNA? Personally, I think minimalism was already found in the Surface To Air DNA when I joined, in the way that they really focus on the functionality of garments. For example, a trench is naturally waterproof and the overalls can be worn both at the office and also during downtime. For this collection I have tried to add some more sophisticated pieces that mix well with the more sexy pieces, so we aim to offer a lot of duality within our wardrobes.

When designing collections, do you refer to special music, imagery or artists, as fashion often is centred around a dialogue between creative worlds?
Surface To Air has always had great links to the music industry and of course we include that in our research, but it’s often a mix of several sources and a most intuitive process. Therefore, I constantly look at art, listen to music, watch films, read or explore whatever I find interesting. To create it’s necessary to seek a wide framework of inspiration. I think that’s just the way I live life so I am always aware of the direct source, when you find this; it just feels right sometimes.

As I understood, you are currently based between the bustle of Paris and the calm streets of Copenhagen – does this affect your design process?
I think it affects the process very much; even the basics. Like, in Paris you live your life outside your home and often go out for dinner after work, whereas in Copenhagen people spend more time indoors. Next to this, the Danes like to be practical, wearing sneakers and clothes they can ride their bikes in. That’s really the largest contrast between the two, the different ways of living. Next to this culture is omnipresent in Paris – one can get lost indulging yourself in all the great food, beauty etc. Yet at the same time its a very conservative country, so there are a lot of traditions. Copenhagen is also very beautiful and we have a lot of historical buildings, but there’s nothing like Paris. Nonetheless, the Nordic culinary world is developing rapidly, all the more reason for us Danes to dress up and step outside a little more.

Stine, thank you so much for your time, we appreciate it. Any last words?
Thank you for your interest in my work!