T magazine: Five Emerging Designers to Know This Season

Pauline Dujancourt

The French-born, London-based designer Pauline Dujancourt learned to knit as a child, from her grandmother, but she didn’t fully immerse herself in the craft until a few years ago, when she lost her design job during the pandemic. “I would read complicated Japanese knitting books and watch YouTube videos of Turkish women crocheting,” she says. “I needed a challenge and found it captivating.” Dujancourt went on to earn her master’s in knitwear design from London’s Central Saint Martins in 2022 and launched her namesake label that same year with a collection of ethereal garments handmade by an all-female collective in Peru. Metallic yarn lends an iridescent quality to the dresses, which follow the curves of the female body and combine delicate crochet panels with strips of mesh. “I thought knitting was a bit dated, so I wanted to make it look contemporary and give it volume,” Dujancourt says. Since being nominated as one of eight finalists for the LVMH Prize this year, she has garnered stockists including Dover Street Market and Mouki Mou in Athens; she’ll present her spring 2025 collection during London Fashion Week.

Campillo

Born and based in Mexico City, Patricio Campillo grew up immersed in the culture of charrería, traditional Mexican rodeo. When he was a young man, his father passed down a charro suit — the heavily embellished costume worn by Mexican horsemen — that had belonged to his own father and, for Campillo, the outfit “became a blueprint,” he says. “It made me realize I wanted to take the craftsmanship and artistry I admired from this universe and reinterpret them in a contemporary context.” And so, in 2017, the self-taught designer, who previously worked on the public relations side of fashion, founded his own men’s wear label, the Pack, which he rebranded to share his surname earlier this year. Campillo uses an oxidizing technique to add patina to fabrics like denim, leather and silk and to enhance the rich, saturated earth tones of his trench coats, vests and other tailored pieces. His take on the charro suit features hand-carved bone buttons and metallic hardware made by local artisans. This year, Campillo became the first Mexican designer ever to reach the semifinals of the LVMH Prize; now, he’ll follow that success with a New York Fashion Week debut. Of his inspiration for the new collection, he says: “Lately I’ve been fascinated with Mexican volcanoes.”

Yaku

For the London-based designer Yaku Stapleton, Afrofuturism — the art and literary movement that combines sci-fi themes with Black history and culture — represents complete freedom. “It gives the individual the opportunity to redefine their identity and create this limitless world,” he says of the genre, which inspired his 2023 Central Saint Martins graduate show. In dreaming up that collection, he reimagined his family members as characters in a video game, creating a fantastical wardrobe of oversize cargo pants, zip-up sweatshirts with knitted hoods and giant pink puffer jackets with extra sleeves filled with recycled bedding. Stapleton won L’Oréal’s Professionnel Creative Award that year, earning a place on the racks at SSENSE, London’s Machine-A and Dover Street Market among other retailers. Ahead of his forthcoming presentation at London Fashion Week, he’s been experimenting with 3-D scanning and working with deadstock fabrics. Home, however, remains a creative wellspring. “Everything I do with the brand starts with my family,” he says.

Francesca Lake

The Jamaican-born multidisciplinary artist and designer Francesca Lake finds inspiration in contradiction. Her 2023 Central Saint Martins master’s collection, for instance, was titled Church and the Dancehall and was informed by two opposing cornerstones of Jamaican culture: religion and nightclubs. “It’s where regality meets vulgarity,” she says. On the runway, this translated to extravagant swooping hats, sculptural silhouettes, floral leggings and a ruffled gold taffeta dress with a cross-shaped cutout spanning the chest. “The Jamaican persona is loud and braggadocious, so I wanted to create clothes that match that energy,” she says of the collection, which has been worn by Erykah Badu, Naomi Campbell, Lauryn Hill and Rihanna. (Her dream client, she says, is Grace Jones.) While Lake — who is also a filmmaker, sculptor and ceramist — now splits her time between London and Kingston, working with Jamaican talent remains a top priority. Her most recent collection, for pre-fall 2024, featured a collaboration with the dancer and socialite Carlene Smith, known as Dancehall Queen Carlene. “I’m delving into untapped stories of our culture,” Lake says.

Julie Kegels

“For me, clothing is a reflection of character and emotion,” says the Belgian designer Julie Kegels. “One day I might want to be the most elegant woman in the room, and the next,I might channel a skater boy.” A 2020 graduate of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Kegels worked for Pieter Mulier at Alaïa and for the Belgian brand Meryl Rogge before setting up her own label earlier this year. Her debut women’s wear collection, 50/50, puts a literal spin on the concept of day-to-night dressing: One dress is draped like evening wear in the front and tailored business-style in the back; another piece mixes banker pinstripes with wild florals. Accessories, too, embrace dichotomy: There’s an enormous faux-ostrich bag with a rain cover made by vacuum thermoforming lace in plastic. The collection, according to Kegels, is inspired by woman’s multifaceted nature: “On one hand, she’s serious and composed. On the other, she’s playful, loves to laugh and doesn’t take life too seriously.”