Ultimately after careful consideration, my favourite brand would be Chanel. French fashion designer and business women, Gabrielle Bonheur Coco Chanel, is one person in particular who inspires me due to her radical and revolutionary designs, ideas, intelligence, creativity and elegance. After buying numerous pieces from Chanel, each has been unique and beautifully made. Coco Chanel was recognised for her costume jewellery, which are one of my favourite pieces to buy.
My personal favourite brand at the moment is Simone Rocha, an Irish designer fashion brand. I find the brand’s designs are unlike any other and tend to be beautifully detailed with colours and materials not conventionally used- for example, the brand’s iconic pearl clasp handbags. Additionally, the brand’s garments are all unlike any I have been able to find elsewhere- such as their pearl- adorned platform trainers, which utilise the contrasting aesthetics of ballet flats and chunky platform shoes to create a distinctive and recognisable look. These shoes are visible in the selected image, along with the brand’s typical feminine silhouette and use of lace and tulle fabrics. I find the beauty of Rocha’s designs captivating and truly eye- catching.
Adorned (formerly known as Adorned Duo) is a sustainable fashion brand run by a mother-daughter duo specialising in ‘hippie-wear’. The mother, Margarita, began their journey selling handmade jewellery in the early 2000s, and the brand evolved from there. The daughter, Sarah, finished university and decided to give the business her full attention, starting to trade under the name ‘Adorned’ in 2014.
This brand is my favourite due to its humble roots and ethos; they source all their fabrics sustainably and prioritise quality over mass production. I have had the pleasure of speaking with them, and they are both lovely people who genuinely love the brand and their customer base.
My favourite fashion brand is Germanier. The brand is a front footer in the fashion industry for its key aims of sustainability and ethics. They strive to show intricate and well constructed garments in there collections vast in colour and opulence. Designer Kevin Germanier has dressed the likes of celebrities such as lady gaga, Taylor swift and Kristen Stuart, this is a key element for me as to why I favour this brand, choosing to design for and dressing LGBT+ advocates is crucial in the society we are living in now, which demonises anyone who is different from the societal norm. The label’s collection is full of glitter-embellished dresses, sharp-cut skirts and sculptural jackets, proving that even the most statement piece of clothing can be sustainable. This brand sets the bar for the industry as we see more and more people seeing the vision of up cycled glamour.
One of my favourite brands at the moment has to be Acne Studios, due to the designer, Jonny Jahanssons’ great attention to detail and use of incredibly textured materials and bold colours.
As a member of the FWF, Acne Studios has an annual ”Brand Performance Check”, which asses the purchasing decisions as well as the factory conditions tracking the strengths and weaknesses of the company. From this, the company has been founded to, when working with new suppliers, ensure that the Code of Labour Practicesis signed (Figure. 1). This allows the company to become sustainable and aware of the people who are creating their products. I appreciate this because a lot of companies lack to see the ethical importance of fairness in factories and usually only focus on how much it’ll cost them. Furthermore, Acne also goes to the extent of having wage checks within their production locations, further checking that every person is paid correctly.
As well as the materials used being recyclable, Acne have also worked with dead-stock materials themselves and created a capsule titled “Repurposed”, which featured a “Scandinavian minimalist style tweed and denim”. This featured a skirt (Figure. 2) , shirt (Figure. 3) and jacket (Figure. 4) made out of a combination of different eye catching materials.
Overall, the brand is sustainably ethical which is important to me. Their pieces motivate me to wear more colour and I am fascinated by every new item I see by them.
Talon, K. (2021, Jan). Acne Studiospresents the new capsule made with dead-stock fabrics. Dolce & Gabbana. https://www.nssgclub.com/en/fashion/24786/acne-studios-repurposed-capsule
My favourite fashion brand is Schiaparelli, as each garment from different collections is distinctive and eye catching. The use of unique materials and the detail of the embellishments create a powerful look on the vogue runway. Schiaparelli’s garments accommodate for most situations, whether it be Kylie Jenner’s’ dress for ‘Paris Fashion Week’, or Beyoncé’s black feather embellished dress for her ‘Renaissance World Tour’, or even just day to day wear that’s unique with various embellishments. The more casual look is sophisticated and classy with rich colours, combining gold with white, black, red and different tones of blue. The runway pieces are bold, and ‘structural’, making it a powerful look that has a memorable impact on the viewer.
Maison Margiela, formerly Maison Martin Margiela, is a French luxury fashion house founded by Belgian designer Martin Margiela and his business partner Jenny Meirens in 1988 and headquartered in Paris.Its design purpose is to show fashion as meaningful art rather than personality worship through the close connection between deconstruction and inheritance. My favourite product of this brand is their fragrance ‘Lazy Sunday Morning’ and their Tabi shoes, yet it is personally very uncomfortable to wear which is quite bittersweet.
My favourite brand is known to create conspiracy and inquisition. It’s unconventional designs sets them apart from other brands allowing for a sense of reassurance to its consumers that ‘different is good’. Rick Owens history of deviating from the social norms allowed for its personal debut in 1994. Owens position cutting illegal copies of designer clothing inspired him to begin his own label selling exclusively to LAs most directional retailers. It is showcased throughout Owens work that he has withheld this sense of higher quality/exclusivity in his groundbreaking collections. I highly admire the ability to associate ‘Alternative’ fashion with luxury fashion. The contrast between his pieces and what is generally demonstrated in the industry further pushes his ‘Dark lord’ persona into the limelight. Owens is said to have based his aesthetic off of black and white 1930 Hollywood movies and the rawness of a decayed Hollywood boulevard. This is ultimately demonstrated through his work as a lot of his pieces are based around a monotone achromatic scheme . Although this may come across as distasteful to some is, I believe hat it further emphasises the empathy that rick Owens shares with the consumer. Owen stated ‘WEARING BLACK WAS A WAY TO PROJECT A MORE MENACING DEMEANOR, AND TO HIDE MY INSECURITIES, Which has evidently flowed him into his journey crafting in the fashion world .
My Favourite Fashion Brand is Schiaparelli as her recent Haute Couture spring/summer 23 show presented at Paris fashion week was striking. The lifelike animals perched on the models and intertwined into the clothes captivated me. With the likes of Shalom Harlow sporting a leopard head on her chest and Naomi Campbell with a jet black wolf appearing out of her faux fur coat, the show was full of surrealist surprises. I am a lover of classic and structured silhouettes and the way Schiaparelli uses a variety of textures and materials to transform these silhouettes is genius as the brand creates luxurious and unique statement pieces.
Gentle Monster is a Korean eyewear brand founded by Jay Oh and Hankook Kim in 2011. This brand operates under the motto of Innovative Experimentation and has a unique perspective and philosophy. When undergoing research for the brand, Kim found that eyewear is engineered to accommodate Western facial structures and this enlightened him to discover a gap in the market and tailor the products to meet the specific and nuanced needs of his customer base. This is my favourite brand as the designs are delicate yet full of attitude and individuality.
