Two seasoned Montreal fashion and marketing professionals have teamed up with former model and designer Betina Holte to create what they call a luxe punk brand.

The New York-based Holte, who is Danish and married to Madonna ex Carlos Leon, had been working as a designer at Zac Posen when Fernanda Sousa, alumnus of Reitmans, Aldo, Shermax and Leighton Barrett, spotted her in the shoe department at Bergdorf’s.

“She embodied my dream aesthetic of what the apparel would look like – somehow alternative looking but still elegant. Half her head was shaven. She was this tall willowy thing – everybody at Bergdorf’s was looking at her.”

Sousa had been looking for a fashion niche that spoke to her. “I had no interest in fast fashion” she said.

She left Bergdorf’s, without having twigged to who the woman was. When she figured it out, she contacted Holte through Linked In.

“I thought any company would benefit from creating brand around her. She embodied a lifestyle to me.”

And she is a bona fide designer, Sousa stresses. “She is the real thing.”

Fernanda Sousa, Denise Arab and Betina Holte teamed up to create a new “punk luxe” brand.

Now, two years later, Sousa, Denise Arab and Betina Holte have launched a capsule collection of 11 pieces – all black with a few tweed and pinstripe pieces. There’s the washed silk almost-backless engagement dress, designed by Holte for her own engagement, an edgy jumpsuit, and soft Ts that are forever cool. Also on offer: black rhodium-plated silver and diamond jewelry. The gems are hidden, Sousa pointed out, so “it’s very much about quiet luxury.”

It is cool in every sense, tapping into the seasonless model that is now gathering steam, especially with Burberry’s and Tom Ford’s recent announcements that they would shun the traditional calendar of showing six months in advance of the season. And it is direct to consumer, with an e-commerce site that launched Jan. 27.

The fashion is crafted in New York; with jewels, and candles to come, in Montreal. Also in the plans, ceramic pieces, soap – all black, natural and non-toxic – and eventually bags, shoes and more home products. They are looking for Montreal producers for the fashion, as well.

The three were on the same page on creating things with “a little more soul,” Sousa said. They did not want to produce in Asia. They spent two years working on developing the elements of the brand.

Holte was the brand – sophisticated, European, living in New York, bridging those two worlds, and not of the ladylike upper East Side world, but more of an “alternative cool vibe.”

She cares about quality, where and how things are made, and the values therein, added Arab, a PR and marketing veteran who worked with the Business Development Bank of Canada and Telefilm Canada,

They had to develop a roadmap to the future. “I understand that doing all of that first makes it so much easier.”

Now, they are considering a pop-up shop in New York, and focusing on building a customer base and brand recognition.

And like many in the fashion trenches, they are questioning the fast fashion model, and where it has taken us as a society.

“The fast fashion model is flawed in a big way,” Sousa said. “There’s no joy in those products. I think people are starting to think about the true cost of that $5 T-shirt.

“I really think the consumer is quietly revolting against this mass-produced product that has like 80 per cent markup on it.”

Rhodium plated silver with hidden diamonds. PHOTOS COURTESY BETINA HOLTE

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