Daily Gems & other musings

As soon as we discovered Sandy Liang's collection when we were curating our Diversity in Design StyleBoard series, we were immediately inspired by the fact that she cast her own grandmother in her lookbook for one of her collections.  Connection to family has always been important to us as well, and we love that Sandy brought that personal connection into her collection. Born in the US and inspired by her Chinese roots, Sandy launched her brand doing her photo shoots in NYC's Chinatown.  Her aesthetic includes asymmetrical silhouettes and tomboyish looks, and with a background in architecture, she has said that "fashion, compared to architecture,...

"Elegance formed in joy." When we discovered Johanna Oritz's collection, we immediately loved the way she described her aesthetic as "elegance formed in joy," with her designs striking the most beautiful balance between the two.  We've been fans of her collection ever since we featured her look in our Diversity in Design Style Board series, and are in love her feminine and structural silhouettes. Johanna founded her namesake collection in 2003 in Cali, Colombia, and she "draws from the power of the feminine - the allure of complexity, the mark of individuality, and a celebration of the exquisite."  We love that Johanna's collections come from...

"Eat well, travel often and dress to inspire!"  Words to live by, we knew we found a kindred spirit when we discovered Fe Noel's mantra and her namesake womenswear line.  Self described as "a conceptual lifestyle brand created for the multifaceted woman," Fe Noel's Brooklyn based collection "is deeply inspired by her Grenadian heritage and has mastered the ability to bottle up culture and glamour infused with sensibility and sensuality." We're most obsessed with Fe's use of bright, bold color and prints in everything she designs.  Our favorite piece from her Resort 2020 collection Daughter of the Soil is this pearlescent asymmetrical...

Widely known as China's most renowned couturier, Guo Pei "has been dressing distinguished ladies, royalty and political elite who turn to her for show-stopping, magnificent creations when they want to look beautiful and stand out from the crowd." When we created our Style Board:  Diversity in Design series, we knew from the beginning that we wanted feature Guo in our roundup of inspiring designers.  We're in awe of the intricate embroidery and painting details she incorporates into her designs and are beyond obsessed by the way she incorporates traditional Chinese craftsmanship with modern design.  From being featured everywhere from the red carpet {think Rihanna at the...

We first discovered Elena Velez when we built our Style Board Diversity in Design series, and have been fans ever since.  Her designs speak to us not only because they're the minimal, modern silhouettes that we love, but she also uses repurposed and upcycled materials to make her clothing not only beautiful, but also sustainable.  Elena's designs "play on the ideas of femininity, challenging with the ideas of what can be beautiful by using materials that are deemed for grunt work and transforming them into ethereal garments." A recent Parson's graduate, Elena has already entered the mainstream by dressing celebrities...