Luxe Cashmere: Tse's Tina Lutz designs knitwear with Claudia Schiffer

Signing up for a two-season deal with the New York-based brand, Tse creative director, Tina Lutz, was spotted meeting up with Claudia Schiffer in London earlier in the month to finalize some collection loose ends. The 17-piece womenswear collection, set to launch from Tse, will essentially embody a luxury lounge aesthetic (judging by Lutz’s previous design efforts for Tse), with some tailored pieces thrown in too. All the while adopting traditional craftsmanship from thread to final weave.For fall 2015, several styles of cashmere and wool blend knits will feature alongside knit dresses, cardigans sweaters, pants and capes. In keeping with Tse’s artisanal approach and the way it explores the versatility of cashmere as a simple luxury, each garment comes offered in a variety of weights and stitches, perfect for unanticipated cold snaps or those warmer weeks during the transitional season. Meanwhile, traditions, scents and colors found in Schiffer’s countryside home in England serve as inspiration for the line, as well as photographs shot by artist, David Hockney, which were taken in the seventies. Dissecting the collection, all the pieces embody hand-knit techniques “anchored by my German heritage and inspired by the pebble beaches, beautiful sunsets and Fair Isles worn by our local fishermen,” explained Schiffer. Also specific to the collection is the recreation of intarsia pattern (a knitting technique used to create patterns with multiple colors) and Aran weave (a type of raised cable stitch, which produces large diamond designs). Lutz, who was also born in Germany, “wanted to create a range of pieces that can easily be intermixed into our customer’s current wardrobe,” she said. “Claudia’s designs were a natural fit with Tse’s aesthetic and her effortless style is apparent with each piece.”Schiffer's "effortless style" is visually evident when looking at public snaps of the 44-year-old super blonde: whether she's dressed snugly in a longline cardigan when taking the kids to school, or all gowned-up at celebrity packed launch. Lutz's style compliment is more than aesthetic, however. Schiffer did make her own knitwear collection line in 2011, which sold out swiftly on Net-a-Porter, soon after its online release. The model does know what to make and how to sell.Compared to brand power Claudia Schiffer carries in her the name, Tina Lutz stamped on a coat may not draw crowds of people. But the designer's understanding of fabrics (learned from a fashion design career stemming back some 20 years) is unrivalled. Lutz came on board with Tse rather recently in 2012. In operation since the late eighties, Tse was formed with the intention of "redefining the use of cashmere and altering the perception that luxury has to be traditional”.  But it was Lutz’s debut collection for pre-fall 2013 in New York that lifted the brand into the spotlight. Her arrival took Tse from a maker of quality, staple knitwear to a luxury ready-to-wear fashion offering. Precisely executed, Lutz’s approach is carefully planned. Her designs draw inspiration from subjective modernist ideas formed and cemented while working for the likes of Issey Mikake and Calvin Klein early on in her design career.Her debut pre-fall 2013 collection hosted monochromatic looks in luxurious cashmere weave, while prints went floral inspired by dried flower books. Key items included cashmere coats, shorts, a bandeau and cardigans, as well as sweatshirts, loungewear, and trousers for women – both cropped and in regular lengths.Lutz fluidly explored the capacities of Tse as both an artisan brand and newly formed fashion house, sourcing organic cashmere knits, and silk and cashmere blends as the canvas for her nude, pastel and muted color palette. The French technique of cloqué or ‘blistered’ (as it translates), produced cloth with a raised woven pattern and a somewhat quilted look. Meanwhile, silk crepe finishing mixed in with bouclé wool (weave made from a length of loops of similar size, which can range from tiny circlets to large curls) enveloped knit pieces, adding textural depth to cardigans and sweaters. The Tse X Claudia Schiffer fall 2015 collection looks to continue in the same vein as Lutz's previous triumphs. Pair that with the entrepreneurial prowess of Schiffer and her huge following? The change in the seasonal winds will tell all.