Fashion

Up and Coming Designers You Need To Watch Out For

As fashion shows kick off in the summer, there will be plenty of different brands and styles to watch out for. 

As new collections are looming, let’s mix up our wardrobe and explore the fashion industry like never before. Whether you’re looking for graphic prints, street style, elegant tailoring or striking shapes, there’s a stylist that can offer that. Become acquainted with up and coming designers using our list below.

Why Should We Watch Up and Coming Designers?

New fashion labels can revolutionize the industry as we know it. It seems like it’s possible to enter the scene if you have enough style to translate into clothes, but it’s not that easy. Up and coming designers face the unique challenge of breaking into the industry while also setting themselves apart from the competitors.

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Credit: Flickr, S Pakhrin

We should be freer in all areas of our life, with fashion being one of them. The fashion institution is inspiring and courageous. More female designers are on the scene than ever before and aren’t afraid to take risks. We need people to step up in order for change to happen. Finding brands which are flattering for all shapes and sizes isn’t possible without up and coming designers.

What Sets These Up and Coming Designers Apart From Previous Ones?

Up and coming designers aren’t just a mirror of old styles modernized. They’re taking risks, and not just in the sense of bolder and richer colours. Many of these designers stand up for people’s rights and create unity in the fashion realm. For example, they create unisex styles, plus-size clothing and attires for any occasion and lifestyle.

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Credit: Flickr, University of Salford Press…

These designers go beyond just fashion, but incorporating inspiration from current fairs and human rights to spark a change. If it wasn’t for these designers being bold and courageous, we might never have had trousers for women or fancy footwear for men.


How You Too Can Take Fashion Risks:

Given the choice, most of us would renew our entire wardrobe. Refreshing your wardrobe doesn’t just mean having spare money, but an eye for new styles. Before you hit the shops, visit your home wardrobe first. You’ll be surprised at how many items you’ve stowed at the back and completely forgot about.

Organise your clothes into styles and colours to prevent you from picking the same outfit every time. Lift out a few pieces you haven’t worn in a while and perform some DIY work to renew your old treasures. For example, mix up different block colours and pair together for a bold look that’s on trend.

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Credit: Flickr, IQRemix

Take a basic tank top and add some rivets and laces yourself. Play around with the sleeves too. Or, you can sew a plain t-shirt to a pencil skirt for a sophisticated, night-time look.

Be true to yourself and don’t just buy clothes that are currently in fashion. You’ll just end up avoiding wearing them before you take them to a thrift shop. Buy clothes that catch your eye and isn’t what everyone else is wearing. Investing in a personal shopper can be very helpful to find clothes which suit your lifestyle and flatter your shape. If pink is your favourite colour, wear it! Regardless of what others think.


Designers Who Changed Fashion Forever

The current dearth of female designers is disheartening, considering the important role women designers played in the past. Fashion isn’t just about looking good, but changing perceptions of lifestyles, personalities and equality. Let’s take a look at a few standout female designers who changed how we dress forever.

1. Coco Chanel

We’ve all heard of Coco Chanel, but did you know the French fashion designer introduced sportswear into womenswear? Her relevance to fashion was incredible and began a movement to create equality in fashion forever.

2. Valentina

Have you ever wondered where the red-carpet glamour was inspired from? Fashion designer Valentina was infamous for her dramatic evening gowns. This easily transpired to Hollywood’s elite, before reaching the red carpet which is still a notorious home for incredible fashion.

3. Katherine Hamnett

Katherine Hamnett is an influential designer who was the first to create prints and slogans on t-shirts. Since her boldness, we’ve seen other designers and companies replicating this style.

4. Jeanne Paquin

Jeanne Paquin was known for her eighteen century-inspired evening dresses. She used her courageous fashion style to create publicity stunts enabling women to attend social events like races and operas in her dresses. This was incredibly brave and helped to progress equality for women beyond their bodies.  


Up and Coming Fashion Designers To Watch For:

With those influential designers in mind, the up and coming designers have big shoes to fill. Nonetheless, they are stepping up to the plate to usher in the latest era of design and fashion.

Sadie Williams

Sadie Williams is one of the up and coming designers to look out for. She’s previously worked for high-end designers such as Marc Jacobs, J W Anderson and Katie Hillier. Since building her experience, she’s undertaken numerous special projects for Vogue Festival, Manchester Art Gallery, Google and Squarespace. She began incorporating crystals into her work since being awarded a place on the ‘Swarovski Collective 2017’. Her work is defined as being playful and original, thanks to the crystals.

Sadie creates modern textile driven fashion, whilst juxtaposing it with a modern temperament. Her fashion pieces stand out as combining a sporty tomboy feel combined with a grown-up feminine touch. There’s plenty more to see from her creativity, as she recently said in an interview she’d love to work with a sports brand. She’d also like to show more creativity and a fun side to her skills by making costumes for a musical or performance artist.  

Raffaella Hanley

Raffaella Hanley is an emerging young fashion designer. Many define her collections as exactly what a young and fresh fashion label should embody. What makes her unique is her sheer passion to keep fashion alive and relevant, whilst being distinctive.

Unlike other up and coming designers, her work isn’t influenced by current trends or streetwear. On the other hand, her intentions are to use imagination and creativity to pursue fashion in a new element. She had focused on costume designer since the fourth grade and produced clothes from dead-stock interior fabrics.  

For her fall collection, she expanded on custom-dyed cotton frocks by introducing corseted mini-dresses with pouf-y sleeves. Her jacket collections are whimsical, and in this season’s collection, she’s added portrait collar coats for a personal touch.

Expect to see feathers and sequins in her new line-up. Raffaella likes to wear pants, despite being Dallas’s art school princess. Consequently, you’ll find high-waisted tuxedo trousers with jumbo bows and navel-graving silk blouses.

Sylvie Millstein

Sylvie Millstein is a celebrated fashion designer, entrepreneur, wife, mother and trendsetter based in SoHo, New York. Before setting onto the scene, Sylvie worked behind the scenes for many luxury fashion brands for more than a decade.

The feel of her clothes in a mid-90’s Kate Moss. As such, you can find tops with spaghetti straps and modest cut, with a refreshing temperament. In her launch collection, she launched trendy prints on floor-skimming black trousers with aforementioned underpinning.

In a recent interview, Sylvie said that her fabrics are important in her fashion collections. You can wear a transparent top without having to wear a bra so it looks luxe. It’s luxury brought to simple core elements of a wardrobe by using sensual fabrics.

To say that her collection is simple would be a huge misunderstanding. Each item has eye-catching details to stand out through the rack. People think her angora jacket is cashmere, but it’s not! Her luxury style is appealing whilst being affordable to fashion lovers.

John Elliott

Topping the list of up and coming designers is John Elliot. He describes his style as an American sportswear company. However, this isn’t just down to the location of the brand, but the diversity in the team, values and tastes. They are essentially a representation of what it’s like to be American which makes unpredictable and curious fashion collections.

He scored when designing fashion elements for a Gap collection. One favourite is the destroyed black jeans which have a unique denim appeal. He’s a free and curious soul and that shows through his fashion. John never holds back with his expression and personality, and that’s what makes his collections so outstanding.

Saying you can define John Elliot’s brand in one word, or labelling his creations would be a mistake. When he began, the brand was a niche for 20-30-year-old men, but now they’ve expanded. Their audience reaches a wider age range from 13-55 year olds, and unisex too.

The West-coast designer revealed women’s wear at New York’s Fashion Week in 2012. This collection had elements of his American sportswear, with an athletically skewed luxury attitude.

Alice McCall

Australia fashion designer, Alice McCall had a ten-year career as a stylist to the stars before launching her own fashion label in 2004. To this date, you can find her collections in 160 stores in 10 countries. It was Kate Moss that helped her to break onto the scene, whilst she created and sold silk tops and dresses to a select few London stores.

Her brand focuses on uniquely feminine details. Throughout all of her clothes, you’ll find graphic space and colour, along with hand embroidery and custom in-house designed laces. The core of Alice McCall’s brand is on craft, so using a delicate hand, different fabrics and embroidery is important to her. The resulting designs are chic, pretty and bohemian – making them obviously unique. She also designs women’s playsuits, party dresses and separates with contrasting silhouettes.

Nina Tiari

Nina Tiari began studying law, but always had a passion for fashion and designing. Her fashion career started to blossom when she met Kayne West, whom she built an organic friendship with. She had a passion, ideas and an ambition to change the fashion game.

It was always important to her that her fashion creations told a story, and didn’t just look pretty. As a stylist, she learnt the craft of curating boutiques for clients, and making sure every single thread is in the right place.

Nina inspires to voice her expression and personality through her fashion. Therefore, her unapologetically feminine pieces have bold prints and colours to stand out from other up and coming designers. Her brand is a representation of fearless and confident city women.

Nina’s 2018 New York Fashion Show collection has the vibe of a glamorous downtown city party girl with a sprinkle of Palm Springs. Nina felt the need for fashion to be happy again in this collection.

Molly Goddard

One of our favourite up and coming designers to watch out for is Molly Goddard. London-born Molly is still in the early stages of her rising fashion career. In 2016, she won the British Emerging Talent Awed, which pushed her onto the scene a bit more.

Molly’s Spring 2017 collection was packed with playful runway looks, girly colour palettes and dreamy patterns. Since then, her designs have become more sophisticated and bold. For example, she created a statement tutu dress for Rihanna, which can be worn over a hoodie.

By looking at Molly’s work, you can understand that she has a strong voice and something relevant to say. Her work is worn by all age group and doesn’t just come in one particular size. Not many up and coming designers are bold enough to cater for women as a whole.

Her work has a dynamic youthful feeling which is bold, energetic and unique. We expect that as an up and coming designer you will be seeing more and more of Molly in years to come.


Who Are your Favourite Up and Coming Designers?

Fashion isn’t just a necessity, but a form of expression and art. Use your clothes to express your personality. If you’re looking for a laid-back wardrobe, Sylvie Millstein is a trend-setter who adds elements to ordinary styles. Perhaps you’d like to be bolder. If so, we’d recommend Molly Goddard who’s a risk-taker with a bold attitude to her collections.

We’re obsessed with the above up and coming designers, but the list doesn’t end there. Do you have your eyes on some talented creators that you’d like to share with us? Leave a comment with who to watch.

Related article: Gucci Sandals Stylish Women Will Love For The Summer Months

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