A decade after leaving engineering behind, the Trinidad-born designer has landed a New York Fashion Week debut, a CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund nomination, and Michelle Obama.

PHOTOGRAPHY&nbsp;Jacq Harriet
STYLED BY&nbsp;Trinidad Alamos

Having spent most of her early life experiencing temperatures that rarely dipped below 75 degrees, Trinidad native Aisling Camps arrived in New York without a single long-sleeve shirt. Today, she is known for her eponymous collection of sculptural, subversive knitwear. “Maybe that’s where this whole thing came in,” she says from her Brooklyn studio, recalling how her classmates at Columbia dressed for the cold. They introduced her to the idea that layering could be both practical and fashion-forward. “It looked really refined and elegant. It was just an education in every sense, understanding how to stay warm without looking like a hot mess.”
Learning how to dress for winter was just one part of Camps’s broader education. She studied mechanical engineering at Columbia while simultaneously enrolling in FIT to satisfy her creative side. Courses in sketching and sewing, combined with internships at Ralph Lauren, Edun, Kimberly Ovitz, and Rag &amp; Bone, eventually gave her the confidence to leave her full-time job crunching numbers and pursue fashion design. “I sort of looked at it as a sabbatical,” she says. “I could always go back into engineering, but I just had this itch that I wanted to scratch.”

NAINA: Top, sweater, turtleneck, and skirt AISLING CAMPS Tights CALZEDONIA Shoes MALONE SOULIERS

Following that instinct has proven fruitful for Camps, a mother of two-year-old twins who currently has little time for hobbies. She made her New York Fashion Week debut in February and was named a finalist for this year’s CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund in June. “It’s crazy,” she says when asked what it feels like to reach so many milestones in such a short period. “It’s insane because it’s been, like, a decade building to this point.” Along the way, her brand has dressed highly influential women, including Michelle Obama, Margot Robbie, Jennifer Aniston, and stylist Amanda Murray, while also expanding its wholesale presence to include retailers such as Moda Operandi and Bergdorf Goodman.
“I think being in stores that get you is really important, because that brings you an organic reach to your end client,” says Camps, identifying that customer as a fashion-minded woman with creative intelligence, or someone “who is trying to do their own thing.” Solange Knowles, Zoë Kravitz, and Lena Dunham remain on her celebrity-dressing wish list, but for now, she’s focused on the present moment. “This is the most important point in my career—I can feel it, and I have to seize every opportunity,” she says. “I am here to eat everyone’s lunch.”

MODELS:&nbsp;Naina Agorot MARILYN NEW YORK and Lola Bebe THE INDUSTRY MODEL MANAGEMENT
HAIR:&nbsp;Ginger Leigh Ryan using ROZ HAIR
MAKEUP:&nbsp;Sophie Hartnett using MAC COSMETICS
MANICURE:&nbsp;Mamie Onishi SEE MANAGEMENT using CHANEL BEAUTY
PRODUCED BY:&nbsp;Emily Adar
PHOTO ASSISTANTS:&nbsp;Juan Cuartas Rueda and Evan Odiorn

How Aisling Camps Engineered Her Own Path Into Fashion

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