15 Rising Fashion Brands To Shop This Spring
The up-and-coming designers to put on your radar now.
Forget what’s in and what’s out. Fashion in 2023 isn’t about being on trend so much as it is about having a deeply original sense of personal style. And so, rising designers today go their own way, offering unique looks that suit every individual fashion personality.
Love fresh takes on tailoring? Check out Sukeina’s origami folds or Interior’s special buttons. Want something softer? FFORME has your full knitwear wardrobe covered. Feeling sporty? Saul Nash and Private Policy blend performance wear and ready-to-wear into something that transcends both categories. Obsessed with denim? Conner Ives’s laser-printed eco denim and Who Decides War’s embroidered and hand-distressed jeans offer some of the season’s freshest “washes.”
On the subject of handcraft, Diotima does its intricate crochet work with artisan partners in Jamaica, while Palmier makes one-of-a-kind hand-painted skirts in the New York Garment District. Jawara Alleyne and Dauphinette turn deadstock fabric—and a few thrifted china plates—into treasure.
Searching for the perfect unconventional LBD? Look no further than the daring cutouts and delicate strap details at Nensi Dojaka. Or try some of the other excellent body-con options at Theophilio and Ahluwalia.
And, of course, no look is complete without the accessories—like the season’s must-have Cookie Bag from Puppets and Puppets. Whoever you are—and whoever you imagine yourself to be in spring 2023—shop 15 labels we can’t get enough of right now below.
“It’s not fashion but foundations,” FFORME creative director Paul Helbers told BAZAAR of the new architecture-inspired label he launched with industry vet Laura Vazquez and tech entrepreneur Nina Khosla during New York Fashion Week. Helbers—an alum of Louis Vuitton, Maison Margiela, and The Row—has created a perfect capsule wardrobe of modular layering pieces, like elongated oversize T-shirt dresses, ankle pants, sheer ribbed turtlenecks, and knit corsets, in a mostly black-and-white color palette, with subtle washes of pastels. “You could also say the FF stands for ‘female form,’” Helbers said, “because that’s really what we celebrate.”
Kingston, Jamaica-born, New York–based designer Edvin Thompson is using the runway to tell more personal stories. His spring 2023 Theophilio collection featured several slinky, shimmery Y2K-inspired looks shown with towering feathered headpieces like those worn during Carnival. “It’s like an extension of myself and Carnival and just the overall vibrancy of my cultural heritage,” the 2021 CFDA Emerging Designer of the Year winner told BAZAAR of sharing his homages to the Caribbean festival with his audience. A racer-back rhinestone fishnet tank is your ticket to the party.
Palmier designer Ling Arnold doesn’t do pants. After working for a decade in the testosterone-fueled world of finance, she was ready for a career change—and a vibe shift. And so, she began her foray into fashion in 2020 with a tightly edited selection of skirts and dresses in delicate fabrics like fil-coupé and silk crepe, all made by women in the New York Garment District. Many of the pieces feature abstract prints or Arnold’s own hand-painted designs.
New York-based Who Decides War designers Everard Best and Téla D’Amore take a couture-like approach to good old American blues. They hand-treat jeans with embroidery, appliqués, dye, bleach, shredding, and quilting to achieve all sorts of fantastical results, like the spring 2023 finale look, which reimagined Serena Williams’s iconic US Open denim mini as a denim maxi skirt made of giant bows. A pair of straight legs embellished with embroidery and distressing is a great way to enter the Who Decides War denim dream world.
Sukeina means “bright light” in Wolof and is the name of designer Omar Salam’s late mother. Salam, who was born in France to parents from Senegal and Mauritania, and was later adopted by an American woman, draws inspiration from his personal history for his signature paneled dresses and separates made in New York using intricate West African braiding techniques. “It sounds a bit cliché, but we are more connected than we know,” he told BAZAAR. “The idea comes from that possibility.” His spring 2023 collection also featured origami tailoring we love for its fresh take on event dressing.
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Eco-responsibility is paramount for London-based American designer Conner Ives, who takes a slower approach to fashion by showing only once per year and working almost exclusively with deadstock fabric and upcycled vintage clothing. He frequently draws inspiration from American female archetypes, which in his most recent collection ranged from Jackie Kennedy to Kamala Harris to Mariah Carey. Our pick? The effortless low-rise Mariah jeans made from laser-printed eco denim.
The spirit of punk and DIY is alive and well thanks to the Jamaica-born, Cayman Island-raised, London-based designer Jawara Alleyne, cofounder of Nii Agency with photographer Campbell Addy. His collection offered a confident—and eco-conscious—approach to showing skin via safety-pinned bits of deadstock fabric that formed spiral shapes as they twisted around the body. Try layering one of his gauzy silk chiffon scraps tops over a tank if you want a bit more coverage.
2022 was a big year for British designer and movement director Saul Nash: In May, just a week after winning the International Woolmark Prize, he picked up the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design. Nash likes to show how clothes move IRL, not just stomping up and down a runway, so he always casts dancers for his shows. “When I’m designing, I’m thinking about ... whether my clothes inhibit movement or enable freedom,” he told BAZAAR. It’s always the latter, with pieces that bridge the gap between performance and ready-to wear, like a ripstop mini featuring elongated toggles and a buckled waistband.
Upcycling master Olivia Cheng leaves no button, plate, or eggshell behind: The Dauphinette designer is an expert at turning unconventional materials into trully surreal articles of clothing. Her garments are couture-like in their intricacy and often feature found objects quilted into clear sheets of recycled PVC. She also does fun accessories, like a resin-preserved flower pendant necklace that offers a more subtle touch of the unexpected to your look.
Dauphinette Phlox Pendant Necklace
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Priya Ahluwalia is part of a new wave of female designers who are changing menswear as we know it. A 2020 LVMH Prize co-winner and recipient of the 2021 Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design, the London-based creative incorporates elements of her Indian and Nigerian heritage into her designs through beading, embroidery, and bright colors. So many women were shopping her menswear offering that she’s now incorporating womenswear looks into her lineup. They include body-con ruched dresses inspired by Bollywood and Nollywood glamour.
Artist-turned-designer Carly Mark doesn’t come from a conventional fashion school background. Her label, which is named for her Chihuahua-terrier rescue, Puppet, is all the better for it. Her signature Cookie Bag—a black leather top-handle bag with a chocolate chip snack glued to one side—has a near universal appeal with young scenesters and uptown doyennes alike. “For me it was like one plus one equals two,” Mark told BAZAAR. “Everyone loves black handbags and everyone loves chocolate chip cookies. When I first launched them, people were like, ‘This is weird,’ but very quickly everyone was like, ‘Oh, my God, I get it.’”
Named for an ancient Greek priestess who tutored Socrates, Diotima centers female artisans. “I’ve been building relationships with these incredible people who have important knowledge, and I wanted there to be an opportunity for more of a collaborative element,” designer Rachel Scott told BAZAAR. Scott, a 2023 semifinalist for the LVMH Prize, partners with artisans in her native Jamaica on her label’s signature web tops and other hand-crocheted pieces, often styling them with sleek tailored separates.
Siying Qu and Haoran Li, the New York- and Shanghai-based duo behind Private Policy, put the limitless possibilities of gender front and center on the runway at New York Fashion Week. The two Parsons grads champion the beauty of fluidity, offering hybrid garments (harness tank tops, bikinis with sleeves, zip-off cargo pants) for models of all identities.
Rihanna, Zendaya, and Bella Hadid are all fans of Nensi Dojaka’s LBDs and going-out tops with daring cutouts and delicate strap details that look like feats of structural engineering. The London-based Albanian designer and 2021 LVMH Prize co-winner studied lingerie design before pursuing an MA in womenswear at Central Saint Martins, and she brings that unique perspective to her Y2K fixation. “Despite the skin-baring, there is always something light and feminine about the pieces that softens everything and almost steers away the male gaze,” she told BAZAAR. Her cutout silk-blend mesh minidress is your new favorite LBD.
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Interior, a new line from Bode and Trademark alums Jack Miner and Lily Miesmer, made its runway debut for spring 2023. The duo are creating a singular brand of nouveau Americana, blending artisanal craft with modern sportswear silhouettes. Go for the chic cashmere cardigans and wide-leg trousers that are as cozy as sweatpants, and stay for the unexpected details like blazers with raw edges or velveteen covered buttons.
Interior Albert Velveteen Blazer
This article originally appeared on Harper's BAZAAR US.