Why I Love Shopping Small

Even when it comes to luxury...

Aug 28, 2024

I think by now we know that luxury fashion is no longer what it used to be. Whilst it’s always been known that you’re paying a premium for a name, part of buying into that name was purchasing a product that was made by a talented designer, which was usually carefully handmade by expert tailors, using only the best quality fabrics and finishings.

The situation is a bit bleaker these days, with recent discoveries of the Italian sweatshops making Dior handbags for £50 which then sell for £5000+, or how Loro Piana doesn’t pay its farmers for its premium alpaca wool. As I’ve discussed before, buying quality products is just getting harder and harder. We need not focus on the scandalous stories, to realize that scaling a business to the level at which most luxury houses are at, is basically unsustainable for the quality/ quantity balance.

One way to find better quality luxury is to shop “small”.

Smaller brands are less likely to be tied to a corporate conglomerate, which pushes profits above all else. Small names are still run by small teams, and usually one or two people who lead their business in a way that is true and authentic to them. This makes the transparency of a company much easier to assess. Each brand might be at different levels of sustainability, which suit us in different ways, but one thing is clear: they produce less than bigger household names.

Personally I think young designers, and smaller brands are WAAAAAAAY more interesting than bigger more established names. I have found that young and / or independent designers are more interested in crafting designs which explores and expresses their vision above just creating collections which are solely seen as commercially profitable.

So in lieu of fashion month, here is a list of my favorite young / independent designers!

Simone Rocha: Romantic, feminine practicality with a touch of goth