ASHLEY WATSON
We love that Ashely handcrafts her one-of-a-kind leather products using exclusively recycled material. Working in Vancouver, Canada she began designing handbags with recycled leather in early 2005, inspired by the original features of soft and gently worn jackets purchased from charity thrift stores. She ultimately incorporates these features, such as pockets and seams, into each unique bag or wallet design. With an extensive background in studio art, Ashley brings an innovative and environmentally sound approach to fashion design, creating products that are practical, sophisticated, and distinctive.
SOPHOMORE
Taking a cue from the timeless simplicity of downtown New York style, Chrissie Miller's company, Sophomore, first caught the public's attention with a single t-shirt design in 2003. Now Chrissie collaborates with designer Madeleine von Froomer to create soft, casual, wearable basics that are at the same time NYC-style cool. The line first caught Candystore Collective's eye in early 2008 because they made sweatshirts and hoodies that we wanted to wear all of the time (because itÕs always cold in San Francisco). We also love their dresses and, of course, their collection of tees.
LAEKEN
Mallyce Miller, the designer behind Laeken, is a well traveled LA based stylist heavily influenced by her adventures. We admire her creative use of textile and print. Tie-dye prints on cupro, a fabric with the feel of silk, are her trademark. Each piece has intricate construction, which creates beautiful, drapey silhouettes that are also totally rock and roll. Based in Los Angeles, Laeken manufactures locally and donates $1 per garment sold to Friends of Toms, a not-for-profit organization supporting philanthropic work abroad
DIGBY AND IONA
Aaron Ruff is a furniture designer and carpenter who also happens to make beautifully whimsical jewelry from his Brooklyn based studio under the name Digby and Iona. Inspired by characters such as Jules VerneÕs gentleman adventurer, Phileas Fogg, in "Around the World in Eighty Days" and the infamous Inspector Clouseau, RuffÕs work is humorous, haunting, intricate, and memorable.
TANKUS
Kay Lee is a superstar on the Korean fashion scene currently acting as the creative force behind four different brands, with Tankus being one of her most daring. Each piece is a lesson in pattern making and complex geometry -- one part architecture and one part artistry. Kay Lee excels at mixing fabrics to create effects that seem subtle at first, but with closer inspection are quite dramatic. We love that each piece is thoroughly modern yet completely feminine.
DEAR CREATURES
We've been working with Bianca Benitez since she was designing for US Rags, a line we had carried since we opened. Her second season of her own line, Dear Creatures, is phenomenal. Inspired by everything from icons like Francoise Hardy and Yoko Ono to mid-century designers like Alexander Girard, the line has a nostalgic feel. At the same time it's sexy, funky, and totally modern. Thick, soft cottons create crisp silhouettes that are easy to wear and easy to pair with other pieces of the collection or your own favorite accents
FERAL CHILDE
When Alice Wu and Moriah Carlson first met, it was over a sink full of broken eggshells they were hired to wash for an art installation. The fast friends imagined creating a compact wardrobe for their new lives in the city. Alice and Moriah made up stories to go along with the results of this wild and untamed creative process and called it Feral Childe. The line's playful silhouettes and curiously elegant tailoring gained a devoted following, at home and abroad, among young and old, traditionalists and renegades.
