Campus Runway: Four Up-and-Coming Female Fashion Designers To Look Out For

From silicone upcycled materials to elaborate abstract articles, female designers are keeping their fingers firm on the fashion pulse and breaking the boundaries of existing fashion styles. These designers are testing tradition and technique with innovative collections that are suitable for on and off the runway.

These are the female fashion designers that are carving a new path with fresh minds and eyes for all things technical and clever.

1. Minju Kim

Since being awarded as the winner of Netflix’s “Next in Fashion” series in 2020, MINJU KIM, a Seoul based designer, has established herself as a rising star in fashion. She is known for her signature style, which tastefully blends a youthful frill with avant-garde couture. 

MINJU KIM is imaginative in her designs, combining bold silhouettes with peplum and ruffles to further the feminine element of her clothing. She studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and launched her brand in 2015 after winning the H&M design award in 2013. 

Her brand is built on joy and instilling it in others through artistic creativity and intentional craftsmanship.  

2. Rui Zhou

“Love what makes you, you.”

Spread across the screen in a bold, red font on the home page of the artist’s website, these are the words that make up the mantra of RUI, a brand founded by designer Rui Zhou. 

Since its launch in 2019, the brand has been featured three times during New York Fashion Week (NYFW) and gained a significant following from the brand’s distinguished social media presence. RUI’s brand seeks to find beauty in the imperfect, unfinished, broken or even unloved, as well as representing the artistic space between softness and delicacy. 

RUI now has studios based in both New York and Shanghai. This brand is the undercurrent of the fashion landscape, breathing new life into seemingly conventional styles.

3. Maise Wilen

Maise Wilen is a women’s fashion label launched and curated by Maise Schloss in 2019. Schloss has been on the rise while working as a womenswear designer for YEEZY; however, her personalized brand has put her on a sophisticated plane beyond her previous work. 

Her brand has been sported by Kim Kardashian, Kendall Jenner, Kylie Jenner and the rest of the Jenner-Kardashian family, as well as Rowan Blanchard, Camila Mendes and Megan Rapinoe. Her brand, evidently, can do it all — from sporty and technical to sleek and extravagant. 

Maise Wilen is a female designer for all ladies and their differing styles.

4. Supriya Lele

Supriya Lele is an Indian-British designer with a distinguished fashion brand founded in 2016. Lele was a finalist in LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, a French competition for young fashion designers, notorious for singling out some of the world’s top designers. 

Lele’s brand is known for the range of shapes within her pieces, from asymmetric cutouts to layered transparent draperies. The closer you look at her brand, the more you can detect the hints of Indian clothing inspiration that has been a part of her work since the beginning of her fashion journey. 

Lele also interweaves the ruched crop tops from sari tradition into her pieces. 

“I suppose they’re a bit like Indian pajamas,” Lele told Vogue Runway.

Her brand bends rules and prioritizes women’s comfort through her designs. 

“A top is a bodysuit is a swimsuit—who’s counting anymore? Lele means her women to be able to layer things their own ways. An outstanding piece was a sheer cotton mesh polo shirt with tiny sequins, made by embroiderers in India,” Vogue stated in regard to Lele’s designs. 

These rising female designers are lighting the way forward. The future of women’s fashion rests in the hands of those who are pioneering the clear and creative path forward in women’s designer fashion. 

Green is the feature editor. Follow her on Twitter.