PARIS — Nina Christen has spent a decade behind the scenes creating a few of luxurious trend’s most directional shoe designs, from Bottega Veneta’s Puddle Boots to Loewe’s Balloon Pumps.
Now she’s prepared for the highlight.
Alongside her largest in-house position but — design director for footwear at Dior, the place she has reunited with former Loewe inventive director Jonathan Anderson — the Chilean Swiss designer is gearing as much as launch her first retailer for her personal model, Christen, in Paris.
“I like being in the spotlight,” Christen stated. “Sometimes I felt like nobody knew I designed a shoe, so it feels nice to finally get that recognition.”
The designer stated she determined to launch her personal label to provide herself the time and inventive freedom to make footwear to her exacting requirements: she likes to refine her designs for greater than a 12 months, one thing she doesn’t sometimes have the alternative to do when designing for others.
“When you work for brands, you collaborate and adapt your vision to the creative director,” Christen stated. “I wanted something where I could do what I wanted: purity, simplicity and technically engineered detail made out of luxurious materials.”
Her strategy is successful converts, together with celeb followers like Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Victoria Beckham. The business has additionally been fast to validate Christen’s solo effort: key retailers like Bergdorf Goodman, Selfridges, Lane Crawford and Mytheresa have picked up the label.
Christen’s greater than a decade of expertise at high trend homes — she labored at Saint Laurent, Celine and Dries Van Noten, earlier than happening to Bottega Veneta, Loewe, The Row and Dior — has definitely helped.
It’s given her credibility with key Italian suppliers, in addition to stockists, and allowed her to go head-to-head with main luxurious manufacturers with top-end value factors that vary from $1,650 for her Helix Sandal to $3,625 for her over-the-knee Big Boot. It additionally helped her discover a associate in med-tech entrepreneur Paul Dupuy, who raised $5 million in capital for the fledgling label and helps with enterprise operations.
Even so, creating an impartial footwear model isn’t any small problem, particularly for feminine founders who can face entrenched obstacles throughout all the things from fund elevating to discovering mentorship.
Christen says being a lady offers her a sharper understanding of what ladies truly need on their toes: “As a woman designing women’s footwear, I test every pair myself. I am relentless with the perfect fit.”
“Christen offers something fresh: Her shoes fit our customer’s desire for refined, sculptural lines without sacrificing comfort,” stated Selfridges’ director of equipment, Sara Wong. “She has a clear feminine tone without being overcomplicated. That’s how women want to wear their footwear.”
Christen’s ambitions for her model lengthen past footwear. While footwear will stay her core product, she plans so as to add different classes from denim to jewelry.
And after Christen launches her Paris retailer, set to open on the Rue de la Paix in the second quarter of 2026, she has her sights on the US market. “My designs for Bottega always received a huge response in the US. A big percentage of Christen clients are in the States,” she stated.
Even as she lends her expertise to a serious home like Dior, Christen means to maintain constructing her model.
“My brand is my life project,” she stated.