5 Emerging Designers You Need To Know — And How They Do Fashion Week
In a notoriously exclusive industry, these emerging designers are finding their place in an unconventional way — and making fashion month work for them.
Published
“Democratization” is not a word commonly associated with the fashion industry, yet it has been coming up so often in conversations around New York during the final weeks of summer that make up Fashion Week that it appears to be an emerging ethos, one largely rooted in the legion of industry outsiders who appear at shows and presentations. While the internet-fueled cacophony of occasionally random, untutored content has become something of a turnoff, the web has also enabled new voices to be heard, alchemizing into a kind of return of fashion to emerging designers, often in more intimate, personal, and artistic form.
I spoke with five emerging designers about how they are navigating the fashion industry and finding novel ways to showcase their work outside of the official NYFW schedule with limited budgets and buzz, and also about the role of fashion week and the double-edged sword that is the democratization of the industry. What follows can be seen as a snapshot of the industry-hacker zeitgeist, circa 2023.
Ben Doctor is all about the vibes in the Big Rotting Apple.