To stand out in today’s congested fashion market is one thing, but to do so as a fully independent designer is a much more challenging task.
Across the board, a deluge of indie designers thrived under 2023's spotlight, whether that’s thanks to innovative designs, thoughtful runway shows, or disruptive viral events (sometimes not even of the designers' own making).
Truth is, it’s never been more important than it is now to support the creatives going it alone. Not only does it provide an ethical and comparably transparent alternative to the likes of fast-fashion but it also spreads the love amongst an often tunnel-visioned, luxury-obsessed industry.
Despite the fashion circus that was 2023, there were a plethora of independent designers that stood tall, owning the year in their own right. Sure, it's impressive enough when you consider the sheer amount of competitors there are in today’s market, and it’s also a timely reminder that innovation, hard work, persistence, and solid execution will always rise to the top, as long as you're willing to look for it.
Ancuta Sarca
Having debuted her "Florii" collection at London Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2024 in the beginning of the year, Romanian-born London-based womenswear designer Ancuta Sarca returned to the British capital in September with a set of blooming fresh heels made of surplus Nike sneakers and repurposed white leather car seats.
This sustainable approach to fashion is fast defining Sarca's output.
In seasons past, Sarca has made sheer bodysuits with out of discarded SKIMS shapewear and created shoes and handbags out of unwanted denim, although it’s the repurposed Nike pumps — which arrived alongside an extensive offering of pastel-colored zip-ups, halter tops, frilly capris, and skirts — that propelled Sarca into a new level of fame this year.
BLESS
BLESS is a brand for the artistically curious. Founded nearly 30 years ago, the Berlin-based collective has become renowned for its ability to fuse the worlds of art and fashion, allowing the IYKYK imprint to curate exhibitions, devise boundary-pushing sculptures, and issue seasonal clothing at its own pace.
In 2023, though, BLESS was flung into limelight thanks mainly to two high-profile collaborations: the first with streetwear stalwarts Supreme and the second alongside Italian luxury house, Fendi.
The former saw BLESS translate Supreme's approachable clothing through its own motifs, like puffer jackets made of tapestry fabric, hybrid sweatpant-jeans, smartly co-branded "BLESSUPREME" crewneck T-shirts, and a particularly artistic mophie charging cable that riffs on BLESS' interior goods.
Then, BLESS’ Fendi collaboration, which coincided with Miami Design Week 2024, resulted in a series of clever designs ranging from a trompe l'oeil installation to a Fendi Peekaboo bag transformed into a shipping parcel, a suitably far-reaching end result for BLESS' first large-scale luxury co-sign since the days of Martin Margiela.
Chopova Lowena
After making its official London Fashion Week debut at the beginning of the year, Chopova Lowena, the womenswear label founded by Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena, was always in for a big 2023.
The brand took over the British capital with an exceptionally grungy interpretation of skate park chic, before gaining sudden virality with unique pleated skirts made from secondhand fabric sourced from markets in Bulgaria.
As if taking its first big fashion bow and becoming synonymous with the burgeouning punk schoolgirl aesthetic wasn’t enough, Chopova Lowena also previewed an upcoming UGG collaboration that’s set to land (with a bang) for Spring/Summer 2024.
J.Kim
Founded by designer Jenia Kim in 2014, J.Kim is a fashion label like no other. Inspired by Kim’s multicultural background (she was born in Kazakhstan in a Soviet-Korean family and raised in Russia), her eponymous label is a cocktail of the designer’s personal experiences and Korean design cues.
Every J.Kim collection is an exploration into the designer's heritage. For one of her 2023 collections, for instance, Kim honed in on traditional Korean dress, deconstructing and rebuilding it into a patchwork of contemporary design cues.
It wouldn't be a big year for an indie designer if they weren't given co-signed by a handful of notable celebrity wearers, including the always well-dressed Malia Obama.
Thug Club
If you’ve come across Thug Club this year, you’d know it. The Korean label is about as rebellious as it is innovative: just look at its recent FILA collaboration, which served giant boots that looked like inverted monster feet (MSCHF who?).
Thug Club is kinda grunge, kinda goth, and entirely outlandish. But instead of throwing it in your face by way of a multitude of disruptive releases or a myriad of collabs, it goes about its business much more succinctly, with baggy jeans dangling with loose threads and shrunken leather jackets that shroud the wearer's face.
Thug Club’s 2023 FILA collabs were peak Thug Club, though, and a perfect taste of just how big the brand went this year, both figuratively and literally.
AVAVAV
AVAVAV is, for want of a better phrase, absolutely hectic. In a good way, of course. The Italian label has long since made a name for itself with viral fashion shows and creative concepts but it went supernova in 2023. Perhaps the best example of AVAVAV hitting is how even its wildest creations, like the Post-It Note suit it debuted for Spring/Summer 2024, are merely a footnote amidst its brilliantly experiential runway shows.
Beate Karlsson, the 28-year-old designer behind AVAVAV, is no ordinary creative. Sure, her concepts are out-there and often a little risque (remember the styled-out tumbles in her SS24 show?), but in 2023 Karlsson upped the ante.
Though chaos is often considered a negative (especially when it comes to fashion), AVAVAV has served it in a way that’s as funny as it is disruptive, something that saw it go viral on several occasions throughout 2023.
Danielle Cathari
Danielle Cathari has had quite the year. The Amsterdam-based designer, whose brand goes about subversively deconstructing classic styles — cropped polo sweaters, boucle tank tops, quilted mini-dresses — started out 2023 by releasing no less than seven fuzzy Wallabee shoes alongside British footwear label Clarks.
Then, an eyewear collaboration with Italian label RETROSUPERFUTURE and a link-up with the outerwear experts at Woolrich. As if that wasn’t enough, before the end of the year, Cathari was finally, deservedly named the creative director of KITH Women. And breathe.
Gerrit Jacob
If there’s one thing that I’d associate with Gerrit Jacob, the Berlin-based winner of Highsnobiety’s 2022 BERLIN, BERLIN Prize, it’s color. And lots of it.
The 30-year-old, who describes his brand as “German Kitsch”, had already acquired quite the following throughout his relatively short career thus far, including big names like Rosalía, Dua Lipa, and Highsnobiety cover star A$AP Rocky.
In 2023, though, Jacob took things to another level with some wonderfully airbrushed designs and, believe it or not, even more color. His unique aesthetic also landed him a collaboration with adidas Originals, wherein Jacob transformed some of the sportswear label’s most iconic sneakers into wearable works of art.
J.L - A.L
J.L - A.L is the eponymous brand of British designer Jean-Luc A. Lavelle, a label inspired by technological innovation. The label began when the designer started modifying his personal archive of functional clothing and, especially over the past 12 months, has become known for its cutting-edge outerwear, state-of-the-art accessories, and technical garments.
While J.L - A.L’s mainline collections have been extremely well-received by Londoners in particular — I can speak from experience — the brand's collaboration with HOKA brought Lavelle to a newfound level of cross-cultural fame, unlimited by genre.
The co-release, wherein J.L - A.L took on HOKA’s Tor Ultra sneaker in high and low-top iterations, flew off the metaphorical shelves in almost no time at all.
Sandy Liang
Sandy Liang has had an uber-successful 2023, to put it lightly. The New York-based creative sought inspiration from childhood memories and Chinatown grandmas since founding her brand in 2014, brain souvenirs she then translates into unabashedly girlish designs. This year, her brand hit new heights thanks to sweeping demand for the Sandy Liang x Baggu collection and the designer's signature ballet flats, which stormed the Cooper Hewitt Museum en masse for Liang's SS24 runway show over the summer.
Liang’s biggest moment of the year, though, came when Salomon back in May when she took on the latter’s XT-6 Expanse and easy-wearing RX Moc 3.0. The former, which was doused in a summer-ready pale pink colorway, became one of the most sought-after sneakers of the year and remains on resell sites for nearly $200 above retail.
Peter Do
Peter Do? Peter Did, more like. The elusive 32-year-old built impressive buzz around his eponymous label over the last few years, although in the last 12 months in particular Do has excelled.
Back in September, Highsnobiety dubbed Do “New York Fashion's Greatest Hope,” prior to his debut Helmut Lang show, where he was appointed creative director of at the beginning of 2023.
Do also teamed up with Banana Republic this year for a collab that fed into the quiet luxury movement that dominated much of 2023, tying into the ardent following he's gained with his own Phoebe Philo-honed vision of purposeful, aspirationally refined clothing.
