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ISABEL + HELEN

We are delighted to introduce Marfa Muses, Isabel + Helen to celebrate the launch of our collaborative film. Photographer: Amelia Allen

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ISABEL + HELEN

We are delighted to introduce Marfa Muses, Isabel + Helen to celebrate the launch of our collaborative film. Photographer: Amelia Allen

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MARFA STANCE X ISABEL + HELEN

To time with the premiere of our collaborative film during London Fashion Week, we are thrilled to spotlight our latest Marfa Muses, Isabel + Helen.

The female design duo and creative studio are renowned for visual storytelling and our film captures the essence of the Marfa Stance brand concept and celebrates the playfulness of modularity through performative sculpture.

Underpinned by an ongoing exploration of movement, materials and mechanisms, Isabel + Helen’s work embodies a spirit of change and transformation. They seek to simplify often complex ideas and ambitions, translating them into something more readable and relatable, exploring new ways to tell visual stories.

The duo has collaborated with a variety of brands, including Hermès, Moncler, Bottega Veneta, Craig Green, and Nike. Their work has also been exhibited at The V&A in London, The Saatchi Gallery, and the Vitra Design Museum in Germany.

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Tell us about your background and talk us through your career journey.

We are Isabel and Helen and we’ve been a design duo now for nearly 10 years.

We often find it hard to describe what we do as every project differs but fundamentally, we explore new ways to tell visual stories for brands. We also have our own personal practice alongside the studio creating kinetic sculpture and exploring themes of physics and transfers of power and energy.

We met back in 2010 at Chelsea College of Art studying Graphic Design Communication and have collaborated ever since. Having a background in graphic design, we have always brought the graphics ideology to the physical. Working with bold and striking visuals, bringing a story to life.

We currently have a studio in Dalston and work with a team of designers, makers, and fabricators to realise an idea.

What led you to launch your own design studio together?

We just clicked from day one, we had very similar approaches when it came to design. Both inspired by very similar reference points, and very similar ways of working. This meant the work came easy. We started off with smaller projects and working long days/weekends, and gradually over the 10 years we have a broad and varied portfolio of work, all with a similar playful yet practical aesthetic.

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Talk us through the process of bringing the Marfa Stance modular concept to life in our collaborative film.

The first briefing for Marfa Stance immediately got us excited.

The modularity of the collection was something so functional yet visually striking. The endless options that come from the Marfa Stance brand make the pieces so timeless and functional, such a contrast to today's throwaway fast fashion culture.

It was a seemingly complicated story which we were so excited to simplify, a perfect design problem to solve. We decided the best way to visualise all the options was to create a physical, buildable and interchangeable system to showcase the many options within the Marfa Stance universe.

Inspired by the geometry within the Donald Judd influence, his vast studio in Marfa, and the quilting of Marfa Stance, we wanted to design a minimalist, geometric system.

As the hand-made craft and human input is such an integral part of the brand, we suggested the system was arranged by hand. A choreography of people carefully arranging the pieces to create the new looks.

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What advice do you have for fellow female entrepreneurs?

Make sure you believe in what you're selling.

What are you most proud of?

Creating our studio from scratch when we were in our 20s and how it’s still going 10 years on, evolving with our lives through our 30s. Surviving major challenges such as the pandemic, the recession and more recently adapting to motherhood.

How did you discover the Marfa Stance?

We discovered the brand through Ben Prescott Design and immediately fell in love with it. The colour palettes were the first thing that caught our eye, the beautiful contrast between the almost military tones, khaki and sandy beiges, alongside the bright pops of colour; orange, pink and blue.

How do you style your Marfa Stance and what is your favourite combination?

Isabel: I personally loved the Bonded Rain Bomber, I really liked the combination of the stiff body and sleeves, with the softness of the accessories such as the Shearling Collar and Quilt Hood. I loved being able to switch up a look with a different pop of colour brought in through the hoods too.

Helen: I love the classic Patchwork Quilt combined with the Quilt Zip Hood, really loving the layering here, and the combination of zips and buttons. So practical and warm for Autumn/Winter too. I also love the sleeveless Bombers, with a white tee and a brightly coloured hood.

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