LaQuan Smith: The Glamour Revolutionary
While everyone talks about the usual suspects in fashion, LaQuan Smith continues to rise in the American fashion industry talent pool, contemporizing ready-to-wear for the next generation of fashion followers and becoming one of the top designers A-list celebrities turn to for red carpet, statement-making moments. His celebrity clientele includes Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, and Rihanna, with his body-conscious collections first garnering fashion’s attention in 2013. His design philosophy centers on “nightlife and the celebration of the body,” creating unapologetically glamorous pieces that emphasize expansion as a Black designer into the broader American fashion landscape. Smith has been a trailblazer in blending glamour with body-conscious designs, with his collections exuding unapologetic confidence. Unlike other designers who formally studied fashion design, Smith is self-taught, launching his label in 2013 and becoming one of the first designers to stage a fashion show at the Empire State Building.
Christopher John Rogers: Southern Maximalism Meets New York Edge
Christopher John Rogers has taken the industry by storm, bringing Southern bigger-than-life essence to all of his colorful designs and receiving the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund award in 2019. When WWD first noted Rogers in 2018, he was moonlighting as an assistant designer with Diane Von Fürstenberg while preparing his debut collection, already having a celebrity clientele including Tracee Ellis Ross, Lizzo and Tessa Thompson. The Brooklyn-based designer has been running his label since 2016, building a fan base that includes celebrities while winning the 2019 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund with his signature voluminous silhouettes and dollops of color. Rogers creates clothing that crosses boundaries, with creations so excellent and unapologetic that they force the world to see the designer for the beautiful things they create rather than skin color. His bold use of color and theatrical silhouettes captivate audiences with his unapologetic celebration of joy and self-expression, reflecting his belief in fashion’s transformative power.
Olivia Cheng of Dauphinette: Nature’s Fashion Alchemist
At just 23 years old, Olivia Cheng has transformed Dauphinette from an upcycled outerwear operation into a fashion brand unlike any other, growing the brand without outside investment and becoming the youngest designer featured in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute exhibition. Cheng won the second annual CFDA/Genesis House AAPI Design + Innovation Grant, receiving $100,000, with her sustainably minded, made-in-New York label growing from original outerwear made of recycled materials to include handbags, accessories, and ready-to-wear. Her innovative chainmaille tops and purses are made by preserving flowers and leaves in resin discs and linking them together with metal rings. Dauphinette is known for designer Olivia Cheng’s mastery of upcycling and repurposing materials, focusing on repurposing long-lasting materials including dollar bills, footballs, and matchbooks. She’s earned a cult following for her whimsical and conceptual designs and her use of food and flowers as materials.
Talia Byre: London’s Clever Seductress
London-based designer Talia Byre is one of the city’s most intriguing young talents, creating homespun pieces imbued with what she calls ‘a clever sexiness,’ with her S/S 2024 show held at the minuscule Cecil Court bookseller Tenderbooks. Raw seams are a central motif in her collections, with this season looking to Amedeo Modigliani’s portraits of writer Beatrice Hastings, using a color story from Modigliani’s palette of browns and tans with pops of blue and red. Byre said this season was about refining the brand’s identity, drawing inspiration from ’60s girl groups such as The Shangri-Las and The Ronettes. Her approach to fashion combines intimate storytelling with unexpected construction techniques, creating pieces that feel both handmade and sophisticated. Think twisted corset-cardigans with purposely raw seams and playful asymmetric skirts that challenge traditional ideas of polish and perfection.
Caroline Zimbalist: The Bioplastic Visionary
Caroline Zimbalist mixes bioplastics with fantasia-inspired colors and flounces of fabric, using natural elements as a focal point to create captivating fashion that combines surreal texture with brilliant hues, with her Fall 2024 collection described as “like a painting coming off the wall and wrapping around a body”. Her work is unequivocally feminine with a cool, dark undercurrent, with her goal as a designer being to create visual experiences that evoke joy and empower self-expression, believing dressing up can be a powerful tool for embracing confidence and celebrating individuality. Her brand’s Fall 2024 collection was its first ready-to-wear collection, inspired by vintage cartoons and focused on coolly remixed denim and plaids. The rising star’s work represents a fascinating intersection of sustainability and surrealism, where environmental consciousness meets artistic expression. Her coverall bodysuits have become signature pieces that transform utilitarian shapes into unexpected delights.
DJ Chappel/Jacari: Movement as Fashion Philosophy
DJ Chappel has been building his brand slowly with creative director Ryan Cardoso over six years, with 2024 feeling like their momentous arrival after staging their debut show Paradise in an LGBTQ+ centre in New York, imagining an unrestrained utopian world where Black men can express themselves freely. Chappel runs his namesake label from his West Village apartment where he lives with the brand’s creative director, with the trained dancer having studied at Pittsburgh’s Point Park University and drawing references from African American dance icons like Alvin Ailey and jazz leaders like Bob Fosse. Beyond the much-loved Spiral Boxer Skirt, the collection brought together sexy scooped and scrunched jersey, halterneck dresses, and low-slung denim, with the designer and Ryan hoping to expand their universe by getting a studio and building the strongest team in the world. His work challenges traditional menswear boundaries, creating pieces that celebrate fluidity and self-expression. The brand’s approach to fashion is deeply rooted in performance and movement, translating the energy of dance into wearable art.
Cynthia Merhej/Renaissance Renaissance: Middle Eastern Heritage Meets Modern Luxury
Cynthia Merhej’s clothes aren’t just beautiful, they are woven with deeply personal stories, with the third-generation couturier Lebanese designer drawing upon her Middle Eastern heritage and strong female figures in her life since founding her brand in 2016. This year saw the designer take her brand in considered new directions, from designing ultra-chic costumes for the 2024 remake of Bonjour Tristesse starring Chloe Sevigny, to a powerful S/S 2025 offering that reflected upon the ongoing conflict in Gaza and Lebanon, shown in her Beirut apartment using parachutes as the starting point. The billowing shapes in black, military greens, and deep reds started to resemble Irving Penn’s painterly studies of poppies, honoring the landscapes of her childhood while making a case for painstaking craft. The designer explains that her designs are a reflection of her upbringing where nature and memory intertwine, with each piece carrying the intimacy of familiar landscapes and materials that once surrounded her. Her work represents a powerful fusion of personal narrative and political commentary, creating fashion that speaks to both beauty and resistance.
Jacques Agbobly: West African Craft Meets Digital Innovation
Jacques Agbobly founded his brand in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, since gaining a cult following for bold, playful hues and embracing West African craft, creating a blend of traditional craftsmanship and digital manipulation that reflects personal identity development, linking prints to cracked paint walls in Togo where his aunts and cousins posed for pictures. His approach to fashion embodies a philosophy of embracing multiple influences while taking up space in the world, creating striking pieces that bridge continents and generations. The designer’s work represents a new wave of global fashion consciousness, where technology and tradition collaborate rather than compete. His collections serve as visual narratives of displacement, memory, and cultural pride, transformed into contemporary luxury fashion. The pandemic timing of his brand’s launch speaks to the resilience and adaptability that defines this new generation of designers.
Anne Isabella Rasmussen: Berlin’s Upcycling Virtuoso
Berlin-based designer Anne Isabella Rasmussen launched her namesake label in 2020, with an eclectic approach defining her work, creating largely upcycled fabric pieces that take moments of 1960s and 1970s design and rework them into a distinctly contemporary wardrobe. Her handcrafted approach to fashion represents a masterclass in sustainable luxury, proving that environmental consciousness and high fashion aren’t mutually exclusive. Each piece in her collections tells a story of transformation, where vintage textiles find new life through contemporary construction techniques. The designer’s Berlin base gives her access to a rich history of textile innovation and countercultural fashion movements, influences that clearly permeate her work. Her commitment to upcycling goes beyond trend-following—it’s a fundamental philosophy that shapes every aspect of her design process, from sourcing materials to final construction.
Meryll Rogge: Antwerp’s Crystal-Adorned Storyteller
Antwerp-based designer Meryll Rogge worked for Marc Jacobs and Dries Van Noten before beginning her eponymous label in 2019, being nominated for the LVMH Prize in 2022, with her collections finding beauty in the mundane with several pieces being riffs on vintage garments embellished with moments of crystal and floral adornment. Her background working with fashion legends has clearly informed her approach to design, but she’s managed to create something entirely her own. Rogge’s ability to elevate everyday objects and vintage pieces through meticulous craftsmanship and unexpected embellishments represents a uniquely European approach to luxury fashion. Her work suggests that glamour doesn’t always need to shout—sometimes it whispers through a perfectly placed crystal or an unexpected floral detail. The LVMH Prize nomination validates what fashion insiders have long recognized: Rogge possesses that rare combination of technical skill and artistic vision that defines the next generation of fashion leaders.
Feben: London’s Body-Positive Provocateur
Central Saint Martins graduate Feben is best known for her twisted, woven and intricately ruffled garments, which the designer says are part of her exploration of ‘physicality, strength, provocation, vulnerability and desire,’ with her S/S 2024 collection looking towards artist Carrie Mae Weems for inspiration and screen-printing her own body onto a series of dresses. Her approach to fashion is deeply personal and political, using her own body as both canvas and inspiration. The screen-printing technique she employs creates an intimate connection between designer and wearer, blurring the lines between art and fashion. Feben’s work challenges conventional beauty standards while celebrating the complexity of human experience. Her intricate construction techniques—the twisting, weaving, and ruffling—create garments that seem to move with their own life force, embodying the very physicality and vulnerability she explores in her conceptual framework.
Michael Stewart/Standing Ground: Ireland’s Engineered Elegance
Taking its name from the neolithic standing stones which populate his native Ireland, Michael Stewart’s fledgling London-based label Standing Ground is notable for its elegantly engineered silhouettes which contour the body. The poetic connection between ancient Irish monuments and modern fashion design speaks to Stewart’s ability to find inspiration in unexpected places. His engineered approach to silhouette suggests a designer who understands both the technical and emotional aspects of dressing the human form. The name Standing Ground itself implies a sense of rootedness and defiance, qualities that seem to permeate his design philosophy. Stewart’s work represents a new generation of designers who aren’t afraid to draw from deep cultural wells while creating something entirely contemporary. His focus on contouring the body suggests an intimate understanding of how clothing can both reveal and conceal, empower and protect.
Grace Ling: The Architectural Minimalist
Grace Ling was the inaugural winner of the CFDA/Genesis House AAPI Design + Innovation Grant, born in Singapore and based in New York, having studied fashion design at Parsons School of Design and Central Saint Martins in London after interning at The Row and Thom Browne before launching her brand immediately after graduation in 2020. Her impressive pedigree—training at two of the world’s most prestigious fashion schools and interning with masters of minimalism—has clearly shaped her aesthetic sensibility. The fact that she launched her brand immediately after graduation in 2020, during the pandemic, demonstrates the kind of fearless determination that defines this new generation of designers. Her work represents a synthesis of Eastern and Western design philosophies, filtered through the lens of contemporary luxury fashion. The architectural precision she brings to her designs reflects her training with The Row and Thom Browne, while her cultural background adds layers of meaning and context that distinguish her work in an increasingly global fashion landscape.
The fashion world’s most exciting stories aren’t always happening on the runways of Paris or Milan. Sometimes they’re unfolding in West Village apartments, Brooklyn studios, and London bookshops, created by designers who refuse to wait for permission to change the game. What would you have guessed about where the real innovation is happening?
