9 Sustainable Women Designers Reshaping the Future of Fashion
Written by Jet Thurmond
Women are the ever-present backbone of the fashion industry. We are too often under-recognized for our efforts and contributions across industries. The female form that is an ever-present muse for designers.
Women Rule The (Fashion) World
Women are responsible for fashion’s importance in the modern world. As customers, women have demanded trends expand and develop, and have maintained an appetite for the newest and the best the fashion industry has to offer. Whether as the customer or the creative mind, we keep the industry moving forward. As such a large part of the industry, it's no shock that women have been at the forefront of innovation and the faces of up-and-coming brands.
These women successfully incorporate sustainable practices into their personal brands, providing products that satisfy customers' increasing demand for environmentally friendly garments. In honor of International Women’s Day, here’s a list of some emerging female fashion designers that deserve our spotlight.
Rue Carlota sweaters. Image via cornwalllive.com; Inset: Charlotte Rose Kirkham. Image via LinkedIn.com
Charlotte Rose Kirkham and Rua Carlota
Self-taught fashion designer Charlotte Rose Kirkham created Rua Carlota in 2019, a brand dedicated to challenging waste culture. While it began as more of a personal project or experiment, it has now expanded exponentially.
Kirkham believed that truly sustainable fashion was beginning to become suffocating and predictable. Her brand is choosing to reshape this ideal.
She uses pre-loved materials and deadstock fabrics as a baseline for her designs, and it gives customers an opportunity to own something as unique as they are.
Her brand was described as “one of the best new knitwear brands you need to know,” by Elle Magazine, and has been worn by Normani and other celebrities.
Left: Sindiso Khumalo. Image via vogue.com; Right: Sindiso dress. Image via sindisokhumalo.com
Sindiso Khumalo and Sindiso Khumalo
Based in Cape Town, South Africa, designer Sindiso Khumalo incorporates her heritage into collections for her eponymous label. She studied architecture before making her way to London, where she obtained a masters in Textiles and founded her label in 2015.
Kumalo creates sustainable custom textiles that focus her Zulu and Ndebele heritage, creating prints and fabrics by hand using techniques such as water colors and collage. She has a uniquely colorful visual voice in her works.
She has received many different awards for her work including the Green Carpet Award in 2020, which celebrates the best of sustainable fashion. She was also a 2020 Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, commonly known as LVMH, Prize finalist.
Left: Grette Moeller. Image via metalmagazine.eu. Right: Grette Henriette ensembles. Image via cfda.com
Grette Moeller and Grette Henriette
Grette Moeller is the creator and designer for Grette Henriette, a brand that creates 16th century inspired looks. Founded in 2021 and based in London, Moeller’s designs feature beadwork, flounces, full skirts, knit slips, and more.
She designs her pieces with transgender and non-binary individuals in mind, and features them as the muses of her collections. Despite her garments being more traditionally feminine, she chooses to include these communities in narratives from which they have been historically excluded.
As a sustainably-minded designer, she upcycles all of the materials used in her collections, making each regal design unique and made with extra care.
Left: Emilie Helmstedt. Image via forbes.com; Right: HELMSTEDT dress. Image via voguescandinavia.com
Emilie Helmstedt and HELMSTEDT
Designer Emilie Helmstedt founded Copenhagen-based womenswear brand HELMSTEDT in 2018, and has received recognition in Elle, Vogue, and Forbes. The prints featured on the brand’s designs are hand-painted by the designer, and from a visual perspective, the brand’s use of pastels create a soft and ultra-feminine feel.
Emilie’s goal for the brand is to combine the worlds of fashion and art, and a visual representation of the designer’s whimsical imagination. This can absolutely be seen throughout her numerous collections. This is furthered through the fact that the designer creates the brand’s prints by hand.
The brand uses sustainable practices in creating their collections, such as using thoughtfully sourced materials, the brand also creates pieces based on demand to ensure that there is no excess production.
Left: Rui Zhou. Image via vouguebusiness.com. Right: Dress from RUI Spring/Summer 2020 collection. Image via newschool.edu
Rui Zhou and RUI
Rui Zhou founded her label RUI in 2019 after graduating from Parsons School of Design in New York as a way to represent the duality of all aspects of life, and finding beauty in imperfection. Her brand represents the space between them. Mixing daring silhouettes and fragile knit materials, she showcases the perfect blend of vulnerability and strength.
Zhou has shown her spiderweb-like knit collections three times at New York Fashion Week, and has received praise for her work, as she was named a co-recipient of the LVMH Karl Lagerfeld Special Jury Prize in 2021, the first Chinese designer to receive the honor.
The brand is now based out of Shanghai and New York. Celebrities and musicians like Korean pop idols Lisa of Blackpink, Korean girl group Itzy, Madison Beer, and Dua Lipa have worn her designs.
Left: Elliss Solomon. Image via londontheinside.com. Right: ELLISS dress, Photo: Josephine Santos. Image via teenvogue.com
Elliss Solomon and ELLISS
Elliss Solomon founded her London-based label ELLISS in 2016 out of a desire to create comfortable but empowering clothing for her wearers. She creates daring graphic prints and utilizes sustainable practices to create her pieces.
She uses locally sourced materials and one of the brand’s manufacturers shares a building with their studio, utilizing a “make it local” ideal. She chooses raw materials like hemp and bamboo which can be more sustainable fibers. She also recycles remnants from production.
As a Central Saint Martins graduate, she was heavily involved in their 2020 campaign to create scrubs for the United Kingdom National Health Service. Her brand has been worn by celebrities such as Gigi Hadid.
Left: Laura Lowena and Emma Chopova. Image via mojeh.com; Right: Ensemble from Chopova Lowena Autumn/Winter 2023 collection. Image via designscene.net
Emma Chopova, Laura Lowena and Chopova Lowena
After meeting at Central Saint Martins Fashion BA program, Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena became close friends that bonded over their mutual love for traditional clothing and craft. They went on to found their shared brand Chopova Lowena in 2017 and now work out of London.
The aesthetic of the brand is directly inspired by the roots of both designers, combining Chopova’s Bulgarian and Lowena’s English backgrounds. Heavily focused on sustainability and craft, the brand utilizes sustainably sourced vintage fabrics from Bulgaria, as well as deadstock and recycled materials.
They produce their garments in Bulgaria and England, where they employ skilled female artisans. Their patchwork pleated skirts have developed a cult following in recent years, and have been worn by numerous celebrities such as Charli XCX, Dua Lipa, Willow Smith, Maggie Rogers, and even Madonna.
Left: Supriya Lele. Photo: Will Grundy. Image via businessoffashion.com; Right: Supriya Lele dress Autumn/Winter 2022. Image via tag-walk.com
Supriya Lele and Supriya Lele
Supriya Lele, a UK based fashion designer, developed her eponymous label in 2016 after the completion of her Master’s degree from Royal College of Art. She creates with her Indian-British heritage and identity in mind to create minimalist, sensual designs that exude confidently feminine energy.
She has a strong, contemporary voice that carries through her numerous collections as well as drawing influence from the items of her upbringing, from the draping of a sari to the design found on a tea towel. Her works are a love letter to the female figure, as the sheer, body conscious, twisted pieces create a feeling that is fresh and modern.
As a slow fashion brand, she has a commitment to creating with garment longevity in mind and focusing on high-quality craftsmanship. Her work has been shown at London Fashion Week, and she was also a recipient of the 2020 LVMH Prize.
Lele’s designs have been worn by celebrities like Dua Lipa, and her more recent runway shows have been attended by celebrities such as Victoria Beckham.
Left: Priya Ahluwalia. Image via wwd.com; Right: Men’s coat by Ahluwalia, Autumn/Winter 2023. Image via ahluwalia.world
Priya Ahluwalia and Ahluwalia
Indian-Nigerian designer Priya Ahluwalia combines elements from her heritage and her British roots for her label’s designs. The brand, Ahluwalia, creates one-of-a-kind menswear pieces using sustainable practices.
She reinvents vintage and deadstock fabrics to give old things new life through various textile and patchwork techniques. The factories that supply these materials employ rural women and pay them fairly.
She takes a modern approach to traditional menswear for her brand by creating clothes that men can be comfortable in, that are also fun and interesting. She was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II award for British Design in 2021.
The sustainability movement has taken hold across all areas of the fashion industry, it is imperative that designers embrace sustainable materials and practices and not just use it as a buzzword for their brand’s appeal. These women have found ways to incorporate sustainability into their brand identity not to keep up with a trend, but because they believe in genuine change that is on its way to become the industry norm. This is a sign that change is undoubtedly on the horizon, and a hope that many more will follow suit.