Stella Jean

STELLA JEAN promised us a ménage a trois of Italian, Japanese and African cultures   she said would play out a “hybrid of geisha and mannish attitude” that would be “both conscious and humorous”.

Hers is a look bursting with busy prints and sometimes complicated shapes styled up together without holding back, but such is her confidence and so new is the look, that she’s established herself as one of the most refreshing designers on the Milan schedule.

If the ethical fashion movement - of which Jean is a major stakeholder as part of the International Trade Centre’s Ethical Fashion Initiative – is gaining momentum via clothes that are bought as lasting investment pieces, it is certainly in part due to this label: huge, full length cardigans featuring peacocks or fish on the back, fabulous checked mohair coats, fine striped knits featuring cockerels picked out in jewels, and wonderful lampshade-shaped skirts swinging in bold prints and belted under shapely sculpted jackets of contrasting prints above them. No Stella Jean piece is ever bought with a season, or fast fashion in mind – these are to be worn and passed down through generations.

Jean’s star was first pushed into the limelight by Giorgio Armani who chose her to take over his famous show space last season – her aesthetic couldn’t be more different from his, but his talent-spotting skills can’t be denied. This season she’s collaborated with Christian Louboutin for shoes featuring her signature Burkina Faso stripes, which added a new sophistication to a look that is becoming as unmistakable as it is popular.