Clothing
Clothing
Norma Kamali Dresses
Norma Kamali has been dressing women out of her own instincts since 1967, long before anyone called it a personal brand. She turned a sleeping bag into a coat, a bikini into a cultural artifact, and a sweatshirt into eveningwear, then kept working past every trend cycle that tried to define her. Six decades later she still runs her own Manhattan store, which tells you everything about how little she has needed anyone else's approval.
Isabel Marant Bags
Isabel Marant started sewing at fifteen after asking her father for a machine, then trained at Studio Bercot and apprenticed under Michel Klein before launching her own label in 1994 out of a Paris squat courtyard runway show. Her first boutique opened in 1998 on rue de Charonne and remains the flagship today, the same neighborhood logic she's built her entire aesthetic around: Parisian, unbothered, dressed like you didn't try. She's the designer credited with putting the wedge into the sneaker around 2010, a shoe that a decade later is still copied more than it's matched.
FRAME Jeans and Knitwear
Two Swedish former magazine colleagues, Erik Torstensson and Jens Grede, launched FRAME out of Los Angeles in 2012 with a single pair of jeans. Neither had designed clothing before, so they built the brand the way marketers build a brand, obsessing over one perfect mid-blue skinny jean before anything else existed.
Haight Swimwear
Haight swimwear pairs precise cuts and quiet color with beach-to-city layers, taking a restrained approach to resort dressing rather than the usual print-heavy shorthand. The label leans on proportion and how a piece sits on the body instead of asking color to do all the work. This edit separates the swim pieces from the knit layers that can carry a look past the beach.
Etro Dresses and Bags
Gimmo Etro started this Milan house in 1968 as a textile company, not a clothing label, built on a private collection of antique paisley shawls he and his wife Roberta had spent years assembling. The paisley did not become the brand's signature until 1981, after a trip to India, and it took until the early 1990s for Etro to sell a full ready-to-wear wardrobe at all.
Abadia Dresses
Abadia brings Saudi craftsmanship into a modern evening wardrobe, with draping that feels architectural. Founded by Shahd Al-Shehail and her aunt Naeema the house draws on regional heritage while working in a distinctly contemporary register. The result is formalwear with a point of view, made for people who prefer a sculpted silhouette to a predictable party dress.
Gabriela Hearst Shoes and Bags
Gabriela Hearst grew up on her family's ranch in Paysandu, Uruguay, and after more than a decade working in New York design, launched her eponymous label for fall 2015 built explicitly around sustainability and a long-term view of clothing. The house has stayed close to that premise, from a partnership with the Uruguayan knitting cooperative Manos del Uruguay to a 2017 runway show run on roughly 30 percent deadstock fabric, while Hearst herself went on to lead Chloe from 2020 to 2023 as its first Latin American creative director.
Givenchy Bags and Dresses
Hubert de Givenchy opened his own Paris couture house in 1952 at just 24, after training under Jacques Fath, Robert Piguet, Lucien Lelong and Elsa Schiaparelli. His debut collection of interchangeable separates in raw cotton shirting, anchored by the white Bettina blouse, made practicality itself the news, and the house's identity was cemented a year later when he met Audrey Hepburn and began dressing her both on screen and off.
Palm Springs Outfits, Styled Three Ways
Three ways to wear Palm Springs Outfits, and the through line is that only one thing should be doing the talking. Hold it up to the light.
Johanna Ortiz Dresses and Swimwear
Johanna Ortiz launched her namesake label in Cali, Colombia in 2003, starting with a small resort and swimwear collection before building it into a full ready-to-wear house. The brand still produces more than ninety percent of its pieces in-house in Cali, and its 2014 Moda Operandi debut is what first carried the ruffled, tropical-print silhouette out of Colombia and onto the global stage.
Pajamas, Robes, and Sweatshorts
A love letter to bed rotting, cancelled plans, and intentional laziness with zero guilt attached. Redefining rest as a radical act.
Dries Van Noten Shoes
Dries Van Noten launched his first menswear collection in 1986 in Antwerp, showing it in London with five classmates from the Royal Academy who became known as the Antwerp Six. What set him apart from the group was a refusal to chase a single signature look, instead building a reputation on pattern mixing, botanical prints and a stubborn independence from the usual industry calendar.
Balenciaga Shoes and Bags
Cristóbal Balenciaga opened his first atelier in San Sebastián in 1917, then moved the whole operation to Paris in 1937 once the Spanish Civil War made staying home impossible. What he built there was less about decoration than engineering: the sack dress, the cocoon coat, silhouettes cut with such structural control that Dior reportedly called him the master of the rest of them.
OSIS STUDIO Tops: The Pieces I'd Wear on Repeat
OSIS STUDIO is Osi Shoham Ettlinger's women's label, with a Los Angeles ease and a soft spot for good cashmere, wool, cotton and silk. I like how it dresses a woman for herself, so this edit starts with the tops I would wear on repeat.
Ann Demeulemeester Shoes
Ann Demeulemeester builds a dark romantic wardrobe from elongated lines, leather, asymmetry and the tension between softness and severity. Founded in Antwerp in 1985 by Ann Demeulemeester and Patrick Robyn, the house grew alongside the Antwerp Six and a deep conversation with poetry, music and visual art. The collection is for dressing with intention, not disappearing into the background.
One-Piece Swimsuits, Bikinis and Cover-Ups
One-pieces, bikini sets and cover-ups for a beach trip from Tulum to Sayulita. It is for anyone packing a week of swim that mixes and matches.
Miu Miu Shoes and Knitwear
Miuccia Prada conceived Miu Miu in 1992 and launched it publicly in 1993, naming it after her own childhood nickname and opening its first boutique on Via della Spiga in Milan. The debut collection was cowgirl-themed, fringed suede and patchwork prairie skirts, a deliberate swerve away from the tailored minimalism of the main Prada line so she would have somewhere to be irreverent without diluting it.
Diotima Knitwear
Rachel Scott launched Diotima in 2021 after building a relationship with Jamaican craftswomen during the first months of the pandemic. The New York label joins Jamaican hand crochet with tailoring, draping and a clear interest in Caribbean cultural history. These are clothes with a visible hand in them, made for evenings when texture matters as much as silhouette.
The Row Bags and Shoes
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen founded The Row in New York in 2006, after Ashley spent a year trying to design an ideal, no-logo white T-shirt and the pair built it into a seven-piece debut collection that Barneys bought in full. They named it after Savile Row and, for its first three years, gave no interviews about it at all, betting the clothes could carry the label without their names on it.
Prada Shoes
Mario Prada and his brother Martino opened a leather goods shop called Fratelli Prada in Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in 1913, selling imported English trunks and travel accessories to the city's elite. His granddaughter Miuccia Prada took over in 1978 and, working with Patrizio Bertelli, turned a nylon backpack into the idea that a utilitarian material could sit at the center of a luxury house.
Anine Bing Jeans
Anine Bing launched out of a Silver Lake garage in 2012 with roughly ten looks, built on a following the Danish former model and musician had already spent a decade building online. The brand's first real hit, the Charlie boot, arrived within months and did more to get the label into stores than any lookbook could have. What started as a ten-piece capsule is now a full wardrobe built on the same instinct: pare a look down to its most photographable version.
Odd Muse Dresses: The Pieces Worth the Price
Odd Muse is the London dress label Aimee Smale started in her bedroom in 2020, for clothes with real shape and weight. I like how seriously it takes repeat wear, and this edit is about the pieces I would reach for twice.
Faithfull Dresses
Faithfull began in 2014, founded by Sarah-Jane Abrahams and Helle Them-Enger after they met in Bali. The label still works between Bali and Sydney, turning travel references, stripes and sun-washed colour into clothes that can handle more than one destination. Its strongest idea is simple summer dressing with enough texture and shape to feel considered rather than precious.
Nookie Dresses: Where to Start with Occasionwear
Nookie is the Sydney label of sequins, sculpted gowns and a good-time attitude, built by two friends with a garage and a lot of nerve. I picked the dresses I would actually want on a big night out.