Eva Hilinski

8 Jan
Fashion

Independent Brands to Follow in 2025 Part One

2025 is in! As we recover from the New Year celebration, we also reflect and set our expectations. Our New Year’s wish for the fashion industry is to see more independent, alternative, and ethical designer brands have enough space to thrive, so, we congratulate you with a list of some impressive emerging talents we noted last year and will continue following in 2025.

Hodakova SS25 ready-to-wear

A few weeks before her show at Paris Fashion Week, Ellen Hodakova Larsson won the LVMH Prize. The whole concept of Hodakova is based on upcycling practices, but Larsson takes it to the extreme, abutting workwear austerity with camp literalness. For SS25, Larsson’s nostalgic memories of the Swedish countryside translated through tea towels, fur barrettes, argyle prints, and old oil canvases with landscapes she had sighted growing up. The collection is built upon her staple manner of turning complementary details, such as shirt collars, buttons and zippers, and leather belts into self-standing garments.

Hodakova Spring/Summer 2025

S.S. Daley ‘No suffix, prefix or quotes’ SS25 womenswear

For Steven Stokey-Daley, examining the life of 20th-century British gender non-conforming painter Gluck was a route to his debut womenswear. The collection captivated Britishness in functionality and composure, evident in tailoring, sharp collars, buttoned-up jackets and shirts, and royal hunt allusions, while playful beaded skirts with handpainted flowers, crochet, floating fabrics, feathered accessories, and floral prints refer to the romantic chapters of Gluck’s biography.

S.S. Daley Spring/Summer 2025

Julie Kegels ‘A pool will do’ SS25

Launching her brand with a debut during women’s Paris Fashion Week in 2024, Julie Kegel, an Antwerp’s Royal Academy graduate, got on the radar quickly. Kegel’s second collection ‘A pool will do.’ is full of flamboyant prints and surfing aesthetic elements contrasted with Parisian chic. WWD summed up the collection perfectly: a love story of a Los Angeles hippie and a Parisian socialite. With her passion for storytelling, Kegel’s designs give adventurous and novel energy.

Julie Kegels Spring/Summer 2025

Milk of Lime ‘Current’ SS25

Julia Ballardt and Nico Verhaegen, Antwerp Royal Academy graduates, launched Milk of Lime in 2022. Brand’s second collection ‘Current’, presented at Berlin Fashion Week, immersed the audience into a poetic adventure through the nature of the German countryside in inclement weather. Amongst frayed hems, sophisticated knitting, lace, and fur elements, and tie-dye bundles extending collars on shirts and jackets, the most intriguing are three jacquard coats with a pattern of merged photographs and paintings, made in collaboration with Jeroen Van Den Bogaert, representing three gradations of Beaufort wind-measuring scale, from stillness to intense merciless storm.

Milk of Lime Spring/Summer 2025

Indépendantes de Coeur ‘G.O.B.’ FW24

Valeriane Venance launched ‘Independantes de Coeur’ in 2021, sewing clothes for her friends. AW24 collection, Venance admits, despite being less vibrant, feels particularly personal, as she dedicated it to people who have supported and inspired Venance on her path. Along with staple deconstructed belted kilts, and a sculptural boiled wool coat, “The Wrong Woman” dress with a signature asymmetrical heart-shaped frill emphasizing the feminine shapes highlights the collection.

Independantes De Coeur Fall/Winter 2024, photographed by Sarah Piantados

Alain Paul ‘Impro’ SS25

As a former professional dancer, a career he pursued since 9 years old, Alain Paul competently reinterprets ballet uniform into a modern wardrobe, balancing simplicity with sophistication in details. The ‘Impro’ collection, Alain Paul’s official on-calendar Paris Fashion Week debut at Théâtre du Châtelet​​, combines stretchy semiopaque fabrics with relaxed tailoring, all to ensure room for movement. The collection honors the legendary American choreographer, Merce Cunningham, with his direction schemes printed on tops.

Alain Paul Spring/Summer 2025

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