Copenhagen-based fashion designer Stine Goya is celebrating the 10-year anniversary of her eponymous label, and her effortless mix of soft colours and beautiful prints continues to define the best of Danish fashion, at home and abroad.
Fashion designer Stine Goya has spent 10 years continuously sourcing her inspiration from a diverse mixture of global influences, even as she has nurtured her eponymous label from her home base in Copenhagen. “Being a designer in Denmark, you grow up with a longstanding design tradition, mostly within furniture and architecture though,” she says. “But to be honest, I don’t usually find my inspiration here. It can be an Italian architect that catches my eye, a piece of South American art or the Scottish landscape – I find my inspiration everywhere.”
For the red-haired model-turneddesigner who found success soon after leaving Central Saint Martins, her design philosophy is clear: “Essentially, it’s about creating something beautiful and exciting and wanting to make a statement with it,” she says. Celebrating her 10-year anniversary this year, Goya feels rightly proud of what she has accomplished as an independent designer over the past decade.
“It’s hard work running a small fashion house so I think my greatest achievement is that I have stuck to the look and feel I believe in,” she considers. “And now it’s starting to pay off. It’s really easy to be influenced by other people and be pushed about – I learned years ago to stick to my core values and aesthetic sense.”
If she has one tip for fellow creative business owners, it’s to lighten up. “I’ve learned to let go – a little bit,” she emphasises.
“As we’ve matured I have learned not to be so in control of everything. I used to know about every little detail in the company, so one of my challenges has been to delegate responsibility to others.”
Her upcoming pre-autumn collection is trademark Stine Goya, with plenty of pastels and touches of deep royal blue and rich yellows. Goya’s prints are on full display, with lush, evocative hand painted landscapes and foliage, inspired by Noah’s ark. That collection of whimsy and femininity, seems set to continue in her collections, and no matter how far afield she goes to collect inspiration, there’s one place she’ll always return to. “Copenhagen is home to me – I love the mix of being in a capital and at the same time a ‘smaller’ city,” she says. “The waterside and people swimming in the clean water, combined with the urban atmosphere, the art, dining, cafe, music and more… It’s a privilege to live in a city like Copenhagen.”