With backing from Natalie Schuterman and endorsement from legendary model Erin Wasson, Swedish designer Filippa Fuxe – and her newly launched line Leoní – are to be taken note of
Nathalie Schuterman – who already boasts a beloved Stockholm boutique and eponymous brand – is expanding her fashion empire once more. Meet Leoní, a new womenswear collection backed by Schuterman that’s debuting for spring/summer 24. Embodying a distinctly modern sculptural minimalism, the brand is helmed by buzzy Swedish designer Filippa Fuxe and is already available via Schuterman’s digital and physical shop.
Fuxe is certainly having a moment; just last week she nabbed the prestigious NK Young Talent Award by Beckmans, alongside fellow talent Joel Andersson. Then there are the celebrity cosigns, with range from Ice Spice wearing her dress on the cover of Teen Vogue to Erin Wasson wearing a look to a Business of Fashion event. Schuterman, however, has had her eye on Fuxe for some years. “Three years ago she wrote to me, ‘I love your stuff, would it be possible for us to do something together?’,” says Fuxe, who was studying at Central Saint Martins in London at the time. “But at the time I was still discovering my own artistic expression and identity.”
Photo: Leoní
Photo: Leoní
Photo: Leoní
At last, with Fuxe completing her studies at Beckmans, the timing was right. “Both me and Filippa felt like we had visual expressions that could resonate to one another and at the same time contribute with new ways of working with design processes and innovative silhouettes,” says Schuterman. “A common denominator for us is a love for quality, femininity, and craftsmanship.”
Swedish designer Filippa Fuxe.
Erin Wasson wears a Filippa Fuxe design to the BoF Class of 2023 event in Paris.
Named for Schuterman’s father, Leo, the debut Leoní collection balances strength with femininity. A meticulously tailored drop-shoulder suit jacket, for instance, is cinched and closed with a signature silver metal clasp. It’s met with a midi-length pleated skirt.
“[It's] a whole new step for me – making something that people can wear that’s still conceptual and artistic.”
Filippa Fuxe
Elsewhere, easy rib knit tank tops and relaxed pleated trousers offer the sort of wardrobe building blocks one would reach for again and again. Fuxe describes the Leoní woman as “urban, interested in art” and “keen to take on new things”. While Schuterman’s namesake line offers elevated everyday staples – decadent knits, elegant coats, slimmer silhouettes – Leoní offers, as Fuxe puts it, a more “experimental” counterpoint.
Photo: Leoní
Photo: Leoní
Photo: Leoní
Though there’s certainly a Swedishness to Leoní’s clean lines, Fuxe found her inspiration in her time spent in California (her father, a cancer researcher, brought the family there for a work opportunity. Fuxe was seven at the time). The sculptural shapes take cues from seminal American artists Richard Serra and Isamu Noguchi. “Noguchi worked with different interlockings and modularity in his work,” says Fuxe. “And that really inspired me to experiment with different closures on the garments.” In addition to those aforementioned metal clasps, there are hook and eye closures – most notably on dusty canvas overcoats – and sweet little buttons running up the side of a breezy skirt. The colour palette is unmistakably coastal.
For Fuxe, Leoní offers a challenge distinctly different than her own offering of mostly made-to-order statement pieces: designing wearable, practical clothes for broader group of women. “In my private studio, I’m doing things by hand and not thinking, ‘Is this going to sell?’ Or ‘Is this going to be wearable?’,” she says. “So that’s a whole new step for me – making something that people can wear that’s still conceptual and artistic.”