2023 fashion innovators
Fashion is thinking harder about its place in the world, and this new year heralds exciting trends and fresh faces. Here are the designers who’ll make waves in the year to come.
Fashion is thinking harder about its place in the world, and this new year heralds exciting trends and fresh faces. In an industry often associated with loftiness, where established industry stakeholders can dictate trends that will filter to the masses, a new generation of influential names is rising, challenging the hierarchies and the power players.
Take Ferragamo, the historic Italian leatherwear house that appointed newcomer designer, 27-year-old Maximilian Davis, as its creative director. The Brit’s debut runway collection provided a slick new edge for the Italian label. Sheer dresses and micro-length party gear from the new collection are signalling a changing of the guard, while body-clinging leather – not the stiff kind, but sultry and revealing – has already been worn by high-fashion muse Zendaya.
Still, Davis didn’t forgo respect for the brand’s storied history: the company’s signature leather goods were given a modish update, while its iconic red hue was reinterpreted in party-friendly silhouettes.
Davis’s designs for his personal label are genre-bending, sexy and in his new role he finds a stylish middle ground – creating an exciting and innovative future for Ferragamo, which turns 96 in 2023.
Another name to remember is Harris Reed; the 27-year-old British-American designer known for dressing Harry Styles and Iman in gender-fluid, fantasy-like designs, who will take the reins at French label Nina Ricci this coming year. Reed is an industry bellwether when it comes to fluidity and has made his way swiftly to fashion’s top echelons since dressing Styles.
Last year he dressed everyone from Lizzo to Beyoncé, outfitting the latter for her Studio 54-inspired British Vogue cover in July. Reed will no doubt bring a modern edge – and a whole new audience – to Nina Ricci for his debut collection in March.
The young Albanian designer Nensi Dojaka caught everyone’s attention last year with elegantly-detailed sheer dresses that scored the highest number of clicks on fashion show website Vogue Runway. Dojaka’s spring/summer ’23 collection beat out industry heavyweights Christian Dior, Chanel and Balenciaga, and all but guarantees she will transition from newcomer to established name in 2023.
Burberry, the historic British brand known for its check print, welcomes a new designer with a flair for the avant-garde: Daniel Lee, formerly of historic leather brand Bottega Veneta. Lee’s modern eye was behind Bottega Veneta’s revamped, edgy collections and this coming year he’ll take that vision to Burberry, in a shake-up that’s predicted to guarantee financial success to the iconic British house. Lee cut his teeth while working under an industry legend, former Celine designer Phoebe Philo, celebrated for her modern designs that highlight the female form. Her anticipated (albeit unconfirmed) comeback will be on fashion’s radar in 2023.
It’s anyone’s guess who’ll replace Alessandro Michele, the recently resigned creative director at Gucci, but either way, that designer’s task will be to provide the firepower to sustain Gucci’s enormous financial turnover. The brand’s growth in the third quarter of 2022 totalled approximately AU $3.8 billion, according to its luxury conglomerate owner Kering.
Also picking up momentum for 2023 is a notable size-inclusivity movement that steers away from the industry’s established body ideals. French designer Ester Manas is a name to watch; her brand pushes the ideals of European fashion, creating dresses that are sexy as well as comfortable. Additionally, major brands like Alexander McQueen, Versace, Chloé, Michael Kors and Valentino are including curve models on their runways, seeing a shift in inclusive fashion that will likely continue. The resounding message: fashion should be for everyone, no matter their size.
On home soil, talented names are gearing up for a memorable year. Designer Caroline Reznik, a recent graduate from Sydney’s UTS, is fast becoming a designer to watch after dressing Kendall Jenner, Doja Cat, Cardi B and Rosalía in her ornate body-clinging designs. Lesleigh Jermanus, founder of Australian fashion label Alémais, will open Australian Fashion Week after winning Emerging Designer of the Year at the 2022 Australian Fashion Laureate.
Red carpets are always a great place to watch fashion’s moving needle. Karl Lagerfeld, the late designer and tastemaker who transformed Chanel and Fendi will be honoured in May at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Met Gala, the most-watched fashion event in the world hosted by Vogue. Expect celebrities showing off plenty of historic pieces dug from the archives of both of those labels, as well as other designers’ plays on Lagerfeld’s Chanel haute couture ball gowns and iconic tweed. This shouldn’t be hard work for Thom Browne, the new head of the Council of Fashion Designers of America whose spring/summer ’23 menswear collection featured tweed-like fabric in crop-tops and jockstraps. Tweed, but make it sexy.
Speaking of all things ‘bold’, if you aren’t familiar with ‘Barbiecore’ – a term used to describe the hot-pink fashion aesthetic that permeated 2022 – then you’re about to be acquainted. The film adaptation of Barbie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, will be released in July and is likely to make the whole world think pink. There will be fuchsia, salmon and watermelon-coloured hues dominating the year ahead, as people dress for eye-catching effect.
How will fashion respond to 2023’s global events, at this stage, is anyone’s guess. Last year was marked by inflation and fears of recession – something Moschino designer Jeremy Scott cleverly referenced in his spring/summer ’23 collection, with ironic ‘inflated’ garments that looked like oversized pool toys. In the year to come, a newly crowned monarch may precipitate social and symbolic change in the UK, while the US gears up for an important presidential election in 2024 – all while the climate crisis stays front of mind. These are issues that will shape designers’ views and messaging. Fashion will have a lot to talk about.
To join the conversation, please log in. Don't have an account? Register
Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout