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• A graduate of UC Berkeley and Parsons, Bay Area native Erin Fetherson founded her namesake label in 2004.
• Debuting in Paris as a Haute Couture line, Fetherson shifted to ready-to-wear soon after.
• Fetherston's womenswear in unmistakably soft and feminine, but also intricate and sophisticated.
• After showing several seasons of collections Fetherson became best known for her "princess" dresses, but has since applied the same girly aesthetic to fitted separates and other more masculine pieces.

Elsewhere

• Collections on Style.com

Media

Erin Fetherston Haute Couture

"Wendybird" short film, featuring Fetherston's Fall 2006

Fetherson preparing for her Fall 2008 Presentation

Erin Fetherston Fall 2008

Click here for our complete profile of Erin Fetherston.

• Based in Stockholm, Nakkna was founded in 2003 by designers Camilla Sundin, Claes Berkes and Ella Soccorsi who met at the Beckmans School of Design.
• The label produces menswear, womenswear and basics like T-shirts and denim.
• Nakkna's designs are avant-garde but wearable, balancing complex geometric constructions and inventive draping with attractive silhouettes and materials.

Media

Nakkna Spring 2009 Video

Click here for our complete profile of Nakkna.

• Swedish men's and women's clothing label, founded by Astrid Olsson and Lee Cotter in 2004.
• Dedicated to the craft of tailoring, the brand places intense focus on construction, cutting, and fabrics.
• While grounded by basic, well-made pieces in neutral colors, Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair is known as one of the more avant-garde Scandinavian labels. Deconstruction is a recurring theme, as is the use of elegant, mathematical curves and shapes.

Elsewhere

• Profile on label, Refinery 29, February 2007
• Interview with Olsson, May 2007

Media

Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair Fall 2007

Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair Spring 2009

Click here for our complete profile of Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair.

Originally a costume and set designer, Belgian Natalia Brilli started designing fashion accessories in 2003 for Rochas. After 3 year at Rochas she started her eponymous label in 2005. Her pieces often use leather as a sculptural element, sometimes shaping and intertwining it with various metals. Dark and dramatic, Victorian influences and aesthetics in her work are clear.

Her Fall 2008 collection is now available at Gravity Pope Tailored Goods. Thanks to reader Aryen for the tip.

B Clothing is the latest endeavor from B Store, the ground breaking London store that we had a chance to visit just a few weeks ago.

After many a year producing cool, classic men's and women's shoes, B Clothing offers basic wardrobe pieces for men and perfectly complement the shop's lineup of avant-garde designers.

You may know Therese Rawsthorne as Youthworld. A naming conflict in The States predicated a switch to designing under her namesake. But whatever the label might be named, Rawsthorne is in our view one of the brightest talents to come out of Australia. In Rawsthorne's designs we see elements of rock, glam and goth, but put together in an eminently wearable and approachable fashion.

Fall 2008 collection available at Creatures of Comfort and Elizabeth Charles.

Ground-Zero was founded in 2003 by brothers Eri and Philip Chu, but we've only taken notice of it recently. It popped up in several of our favorite shops in Spring and is set to debut in a few more top-notch boutiques in the fall. The label is known for its bold graphic design (as Eri Chu studied the discipline) and if we look at the earlier collections the graphics are clearly the focus of the collection. Lately though the label has started to play with different materials and cuts in addition to developing graphics. Fall 2008, by our estimation, is their most noteworthy collection yet.

Available or available soon at Fatal, I Dont Like Mondays, Seven and Pixie Market.

Nil & Mon follows the grand new tradition of Perks & Mini, with maybe bits of Cassette Playa and Burfitt thrown in. Bold colors, simple shapes, a bit of illustration--it's playful, fresh streetwear from a German who studied at Central St. Martins.

Available at Styleserver

White Capri is a new Berlin based accessories label, whose first collection is inspired by a movie set in London, directed by a Jewish American director. Woody Allen is the director, Match Point is the movie, and White Capri has designed quite a beautiful collection of bags and jewelry that are urban and proper at the same time.

The collection is naturally available online for sale and shipping around the world. Welcome to the global fashion village.

Serial Cultura is a hand silk-screened and hand-dyed line of women's clothing made in San Francisco, California. And along with RosenMunns, that's the second San Francisco based lined we've featured on this blog. Yes, that's New York 106500, San Francisco 2, but hey, it's a start.

Available at M.A.C. and TG-170.

Hartmann Nordenholz's Fall 2008 is their 15th, but we're just hearing of the Austrian label. Hartmann Nordenholz designers Filip Fiska and Agnes Schorer, have studied and worked under the likes of Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Viktor&Rolf, Helmut and Raf Simons.

Available at b-Store

In the same vein as Jeremy Scott and Jean-Charles de Castelbac, Australia's Material Boy knows how to make a graphical statement.

Available at Seven

We recently went to Project No. 8 to check out the work of Stephan Schneider (which, by the way, is superb), and we couldn't help but notice the work of Peter Wiesmann.

The German designer previously worked at Bless, and took part in the 2007 edition of the Hyeres fashion festival. With this initial collection, the idea was to take everyday, banal items like boxer shorts or white T-shirts or knit socks, and give them a luxe, almost couture makeover.

Not pictured here, but available at Project No. 8, is a clever line of jewelry by Wiesmann combining magnets and Euro coins. We'd expect interesting work yet to come from Wiesmann.

Anyone who knows anything about LA fashion knows to avoid fashion week like the plague (lest celebrity spectacles are your thing) and look to smaller labels quietly doing interesting work around the city. Among our favorite LA based labels right now is Cavern. The work of artists Adam Tullie and Angeline Rivas, the label works with hand-drawn graphics, fine fabrics and simple lines. Beginning as a T-shirt line, for Spring 2008 the label has expanded into cut-and-sew pieces.

Oak just brought in several men's T-shirts.

Anuschka Hoevener is our new favorite German designer.

Available at Project No. 8 and Harputs Market.