UP A STEEP HILL from the historic fashion houses of Paris’s Triangle d’Or, Nina Christen is quietly developing a brand that may rival them all.
A former shoe designer for Phoebe Philo’s Céline and a current shoe designer for The Row—two cultish juggernauts—the Chilean-Swiss designer is positioned to create minimalist magic with her new line, Christen.
Free from the constraints of a conglomerate like LVMH, it launches this September on an e-commerce site with a few considered shoes, followed by more accessories and clothing. A Paris store is planned for next year.
“My dream is to make something different,” says the soft-spoken polyglot in her raw, almost crumbling Montmartre studio. “The fashion system now follows such specific rules, and I just want to forget about everything and reimagine how ideally things could be.”
In an industry where shoe designers are often mere cogs in the wheel, 39-year-old Christen has developed an insider’s reputation as a secret weapon for accessories. The viral balloon-studded pumps at Loewe for spring 2023? Christen’s brainchild. The boxy-toed sandals for Daniel Lee’s buzzy first collection at Bottega Veneta in 2019? Christen. Those cult-classic rubber Chelsea boots during Phoebe Philo’s Céline era? Christen, too.
Established luxury brands are autocracies (and sometimes dictatorships) ruled by one supreme name-brand creative director. Under that person toil countless designers, most of whom are happy to avoid the pressure at the top. A shoe specialist as in-demand as Christen could have a low-key, lucrative career for decades working for others. But Christen has dreamed of creating her own brand for 10 years. She finally began it a year ago.
The purist designer is inspired by how tech companies operate. She likes how Tesla’s design studio works near its engineering team, and she typically spends a lot of time knee-deep in logistics at her factories (“Shoes are little cars,” she says). She’s nearly as passionate about her packaging as the product itself; her matte-black boxes and shipping envelopes are as streamlined as Apple ’s containers. Her line won’t be wholesaled to department or specialty stores but will be sold only direct-to-consumer via Christen’s own website and stores. A data scientist will be on staff to provide insights on such topics as efficiencies and customer behavior.
For all that tech talk, Christen’s line is straightforwardly seductive, starting with the luxurious shoes that are made in Italy, with no corners cut and price tags to match (shoes range from approximately $1,100 to $3,500).
After the first drop of an over-the-knee flat boot, a shearling-lined bootie and a thong high-heeled sandal with straps, others will follow, including tabi-toed ballerinas, heeled boots and severe stilettos. But she’s also designed dark selvage-denim jeans, T-shirts and lingerie made in Japan, and a made-to-measure couture-level shearling jacket.
That kind of slow fashion and independence was made possible by Christen’s business partner, Paul Dupuy. A 35-year-old French entrepreneur with the intense, quirky verve of a character from the HBO banking show Industry , Dupuy co-owns three sushi restaurants in Paris and New York, and co-founded a health-tech startup called Zoī that offers checkups and lifestyle recommendations.
He and Christen bonded over a shared love of Japan. After they first met, Christen designed 3-D-printed slippers, uniforms for medical staff and towels for Zoī. Dupuy was convinced enough by her talent to lead a small group of investors in an initial $5 million funding round.
He’s ambitious for the brand’s impact: “In the 21st century, we have not really seen any brands bloom in a way that it’s going to be the Chanel or the Hermès or the Louis Vuitton of the 21st century, the same way those guys were in the 19th and 20th century,” he says. “I believe that Christen can be that one.”
From her time with Philo from 2017 to 2018, Christen says that she learned not to compromise, and to be yourself “with all your edges.” At Céline, she says she pushed herself to make pieces that would make Philo say “Wow.”
While the experience shaped her creatively, it was more rigorous than cozy. “I think it’s essential for a creative person to have very serious criticism,” she says. “I definitely received this, which I’m very thankful for.”
Christen moved to her current day job, as a shoe designer at The Row, because her own “personal mood” had shifted. “I was just not that much into these fun shoes anymore,” she says, expressing a desire for something more serious. With her notoriously private bosses, Christen says that she’s having “the best collaboration and conversation about fashion that I could have with creative directors.”
What has ultimately been consistent in Christen’s designs, regardless of the creative director, is her functional, chic, slightly oddball creativity. “I’ve always insisted on my own taste,” she says.
The difference is that now her work finally has her name on it.
