Fashion can be a relentless industry: pressure to produce consistent, excellent collections twice a year at a minimum, whilst appealing to the wider public in a series of smaller drops and commercially-minded campaigns. That’s not to mention the expected drive for multiple annual collaborations, promotion and all whilst avoiding your designs being copied, reworked and resold by Shein. In the words of the dethroned queen of the Millennial YouTube era Zoella, Sometimes It All Gets A Bit Too Much.

In the depths of fashion month and the realities of our general consumer-driven culture, it’s refreshing to encounter brands that are doing something different. Whether that’s through designing, marketing, presentations or all of the above. We’re running through a handful of brands that woke us from our fashion-induced slumber, and that you should know about before they blow up.

HELIOT EMIL

It seems the world is waking up to this brand. Known for its sharp tailoring and utilitarian angle, Heliot Emil favours suiting with harness-like straps which wrap around the body. Adding an edge to both mens and womenswear, these have become something of a design motif for the brand and creative director Julius Juul. The recent BRITs red carpet could’ve been an Heliot Emil show, with KSI and winner of the night Dave both sporting the brand for the awards.

LOWNN

From hard tailoring to soft tailoring, enter the illustrious world of Lownn. Founded by Loic and Swann Joachim, this brand’s take on a blazer leaves the classic detailing as it is, but instead focuses on updating and manipulating proportions to stand out from the crowd. Lownn favours dropped shoulders, a wide body and oversized silhouette for the perfect understated look that would work with in summer with a tee, or winter with a hoodie. We love versatility.

ABOUT:BLANK 

about:blank are doing minimalist streetwear right. Clean shapes, clean graphics, and clean messaging, this brand is a much needed break from the busy streetwear aesthetic that has come to dominate in recent years. Creative director Jack writes that “The name refers to the page that appears when your web browser has nothing else to display – you can’t actually get rid of or remove about:blank. It’s part of the system and it’ll always be there”. We see what they’re doing there.

APPLIED ART FORMS

APPLIED ART FORMS is a fashion label drawing from vintage utilitarian, military and workwear clothing, with carefully selected fabrics and elevated construction detail. Headed up by Coldplay’s Guy Berryman, the brand bridges authentic design and manufacturing techniques from both Europe and Japan, but is actually based in Amsterdam. It uses the city’s love for vintage to inform its designs. Meant to be used everyday, and to improve with age, APPLIED ART FORMS garments are sustainably crafted as well as offering a fresh streetwear perspective.

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