BIOGRAPHY
‘Helsen’ is a name synonymous with fine tailoring for three generations since 1939. Since the age of 28 Stijn, the youngest son, had already distributed his own label international. Destiny may have played a part in this young designer’s career when his grandfather, Albert Helsen, opened his first shop in Borgloon. Belgian custom making suits and offering his clients a personal pattern of their body frame, a craft that later on would be passed on to his son, Roland Helsen. Stijn’s father moved the family business to Hasselt to open a shop that offers everything from fine Italian suits to American sportswear, while still offering the high quality label, Helsen.
In these surroundings it was only natural for Roland’s youngest son to be fascinated in the craft that his father and his grandfather had perfected to an art. At the age of 12 Stijn was already designing and sewing his own trousers. But Stijn wanted more than learning first hand, he wanted to be formally trained, so he enrolled himself in the ‘Léon Mignon’ tailoring school in the French speaking part of Belgium. His education there furthered his interest, to a higher level where he attended l’Insituto Marangoni in Milano. After learning and mastering the technique of tailoring, Stijn felt that he was ready to design his own collection and started selling it in his family shops. The reception of his design was so great, that shortly afterwards Stijn’s talent with draping and pattern making quickly became noticed and he was asked to work freelance for avant-garde Vivienne Westwood in London (read more).
This opportunity was perfect for him because it enabled him to experience another dimension of the fashion world the young and hip urban London scene. While he stayed in London, Joseph, a prominent international retailer showed interest in some of his work and asked him to design a line under the ‘Joseph’ label.
It didn’t take long before another top name in the fashion business took notice of Mr. Helsen’s talent. Valentino requested Stijn to move to Rome and to work on his collection, an offer Stijn could not refuse (read more).
FREELANCE
After his Latin experience with Valentino, a talent scout proposed Stijn Helsen to move to Hollywood to work on ‘Spiderman’ . ‘Spiderman’ was one of the most eager awaited movies of his period, which is a lot of baggage to carry for a young costume designer but a the same time a great challenge and a great opportunity. This project was so successful, he was asked for the other big blockbuster ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ in which he designed the outfits for Johny Depp, alias Jack Sparrow, Orlando Bloom and Geoffrey Rush.
That same costume house asked Stijn for his tailoring knowledge to work on a third movie ‘Seabiscuit’, a great American story about horse races in the thirty’s. The entirely cast was dressed by Stijn Helsen (Tobey Macguire and Jeff Bridges). After this American experience Stijn Helsen returned to Europe to open in October 2007 his third store: ‘The Stijn Helsen Conceptstore’ .