Keep These 10 Designers On Your Radar This Year
In the March/April Next Wave Issue, EDITION highlighted ten emerging creatives in the fashion space. Since we couldn’t limit the list, we’ve compiled an additional line-up of innovative designers you should follow!
See more: 10 Emerging Creatives Who Inspire Innovation In Design
Fe Noel
Fe Noel uses vibrant colors to paint a picture of romantic clothes at home on city streets. Whether it’s flowing sleeves or languid silky pants, Noel designs for women’s adventures.
Jameel Mohammed
Brooklyn’s Jameel Mohammed describes his jewelry line, Khiry, as Afrofuturistic. Sensuous in shape and touch, pieces are evocative of Brancusi via Benin. In 2021, he won the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund.
Ade Samuel
Rich, bold color, a New York cool with an L.A. attitude, Ade Samuel knows how to put it together for red carpets, videos, editorial, or ads—breaking the barriers for straight Black women stylists.
Mowalola Ogunlesi
Keep your eyes peeled for the next drops from Mowalola Ogunlesi. The Nigerian-British designer turned our heads when Kanye West tapped her to design his GAP line. But her own collection is all kinds of brash and sexy; gender unisex and Afro-centric. She’s a Central Saint Martin design school graduate and a former employee and mentee of Grace Wales Bonner.
Antoine Manning
Some brands get traction with one hot item. For example, ATL’s Antoine Manning’s Homage Year’s seductive, gotta-have-it handbags in mauve, pink, cornflower, tangerine, and more, are like candy.
Edvin Thompson
As with Britain’s groundbreaking Grace Wales-Bonner, Thompson’s genderless Theophilio line expresses his Jamaican roots like Rastafarian red, green, and gold. His creative chops led to his winning CFDA’s 2021 American Emerging Designer of the Year award.
Anit Cuts
If you want to just hold up the wall at the next event you attend, don’t bother to call Anit Cuts and Stitches. Working with details like volume, African prints, and revealing cuts, Anit creates looks that make heads swivel. All handmade, the designer also runs an innovative rental service for African prints to promote sustainability.
Zaire Wade
Yes, he’s that Wade. But we’re not here for Zaire Wade’s basketball (he’s already in the NBA’s G League) but for his YNG DNA athleisure collection. Wade, 20, is focused on sustainability by creating NFTs for YNG DNA.
Marcellas Reynolds
Author Marcellas Reynolds’ book Supreme Actresses, the stunning follow up to his Supreme Models, gives Hollywood’s leading ladies of color, like Viola Davis, their due putting gorgeous Black women in the light they deserve.
Thebe Magugu
Johannesburg-based designer Thebe Magugu’s riveting urban-African aesthetic deftly mines his South African culture and won him the 2019 LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers.
Tags: Fashion, fashion designers, Next Wave, Constance CR White,
Photography by: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images
