Lukhanyo MdingiLukhanyo Mdingi has been beavering away for several years in Cape Town, slowly developing his brand’s texture-laden collections into which is woven a social mission that enables local artisans to continue their craft, while outfitting a constantly growing global community of loyalists.
A. Roege HoveAmalie Røge Hove has a way with knits: her delicate yet extravagant tubular constructions are revealing in deliberate ways, while also providing comfort and protection. With a master’s in textile design from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Hove creates only two collections a year for her Copenhagen-based label A. Roege Hove, opting to offer less in the world, while ensuring longevity through expert form and fabrication.
TotonJakarta-based Toton has wowed us since 2012 with sharp cuts and silhouettes, executed with his idiosyncratic knack for naturally intertwining the new with a traditional, craft-based approach.
Sofia IlmonenWinner of the first Mercedes-Benz Prize for Sustainability at the 2021 Festival de Mode in Hyères, Sofia Ilmonen has an approach to design that attempts to minimise waste and maximise beauty. A graduate of the fashion master’s at Aalto University in Finland, she is pioneering modular dressing: many of her garments are made up of square patches buttoned together, allowing endless modifications and transformations depending on how you detach and reattach.
Carl Jan CruzFor several years now, Manila-based Carl Jan Cruz has offered clever takes on denim, T-shirts and voluminous tops and dresses featuring weathered seams and subtly deconstructed details. Using an ever-evolving language of cut, construction and consumer, Cruz draws on his time in the 3D atelier at Phoebe Philo-era Céline, and pours love into the finishes that bring his restrained but instantly recognisable designs into focus.
LatimmierErvin Latimer – another Aalto University master’s graduate – has only recently officially launched his label, building a studio in Helsinki and planting his flag in its design-savvy ground. The designer has since begun “investigating the performance of masculinities”, an aesthetic perfectly in tune with the current revolution in menswear. We are eager to see what he shares next.