The company behind familiar department-store names learned the price of borrowed fame. Now it is buying a bigger say in fashion’s future.
The Bangkok fashion company began with a promise to stay online. Its signature shopping service emerged when it let shoppers close the app, try on the clothes, and decide before paying.
A Ralph Lauren veteran saw a wardrobe problem hiding in plain sight: golf clothes that belonged only on a golf course. Greyson built its answer around Italian stretch fabric, sharp tailoring and a wolf with social ambitions.
After a corporate detour, Adam Lippes rebuilt his label around fine fabrics, exacting fit, and women with places to go. The interesting part of this luxury business is how closely the product follows the customer.
M&S bought a famous fashion name after its second collapse. Jaeger’s new life puts Victorian wool credentials, archive designs and a very modern distribution network to work.
The Los Angeles label turned premium denim into a wardrobe system - then used wholesale reach, celebrity stylists and a fast-growing online store to move from one Melrose boutique to a global retail footprint.
How Manish and Akshika Poddar turned a family garment factory's European know-how into one of India's fastest-growing premium fashion houses - and stayed bootstrapped until the numbers spoke for themselves.
Two brothers quit jobs they disliked, borrowed $8,000 on credit cards and started selling neckties from a Jeep. Twenty-eight years later, their most valuable product may still be the feeling stitched into a smiling pink whale.
A former fit model turned the fitting room into a research lab. Two decades later, PAIGE sells denim, tailoring, footwear and wardrobe staples through more than 1,000 retailers in over 80 countries.
ANINE BING is a Los Angeles-based global fashion house founded in 2012 by Danish designer Anine Bing and her husband Nicolai Bing. Built out of a Silver Lake garage and scaled through a highly engaged social-media audience, the brand pairs Scandinavian minimalism with American energy to make timeless wardrobe essentials - leather jackets, denim, knitwear, jewelry and accessories - sold direct-to-consumer online and through a growing network of global retail stores. Backed by Index Ventures, Greycroft and Felix Capital, ANINE BING has grown into a nine-figure business operating dozens of stores worldwide.
Billy Reid is an American luxury fashion house based in Florence, Alabama, founded by four-time CFDA-winning designer Billy Reid. Known as 'American luxury built to last,' the brand blends Southern craft and hospitality with a New York sensibility, offering menswear, womenswear, custom tailoring, footwear and accessories through freestanding stores, wholesale partners and a direct-to-consumer site. Beyond clothing, Billy Reid is a culture brand - its Shindig festival brings together music, food, art and design in the Muscle Shoals region.
BYLT Basics is a Southern California premium apparel brand that reengineers everyday wardrobe staples - tees, polos, joggers and outerwear - with heavier, longer-lasting performance fabrics and tailored fits. Founded in 2016 by Eric Mear, who was frustrated that basic black T-shirts fell apart after a few washes, the direct-to-consumer label built its reputation on its flagship Drop-Cut silhouette and has grown into an omnichannel business spanning men's, women's and kids' lines sold online, in retail stores, and at wholesale partners like Nordstrom, shipping to over 50 countries.
Eleventy USA is the North American arm of Eleventy, a Milan-based Italian luxury label founded in 2007 by Marco Baldassari and Paolo Zuntini. Built on a philosophy of 'Smart Luxury' - understated, logo-free clothing that blends traditional Italian tailoring with modern comfort - the brand sells men's and women's ready-to-wear, sportswear, shoes, leather goods, eyewear and accessories. Since establishing its New York headquarters in 2016, Eleventy USA has grown its stateside footprint to eight flagships and become a leading example of the 'quiet luxury' movement in America.
Frances Valentine is a New York-based, vintage-inspired fashion label founded in 2016 by Kate Spade, Andy Spade, Elyce Arons and Paola Venturi - the same circle behind the original Kate Spade brand. It designs joyful, color-forward apparel, handbags, shoes, jewelry and accessories built to transcend trends, sold primarily direct-to-consumer online and through a small network of owned stores. The brand pairs quality craftsmanship with a playful, heritage-minded aesthetic drawn from mid-century style icons, aiming to make everyday dressing fun.
GUIZIO is the New York womenswear label founded by self-taught designer Danielle Guizio in 2014. Built around signature corsets, structured suiting and form-fitting silhouettes with asymmetrical cut-outs and custom hardware, the brand grew from a $400 graphic-tee project in a New Jersey basement into a direct-to-consumer fashion house with a SoHo flagship, international showrooms and a celebrity following that includes the Hadids, the Kardashian-Jenners, Rosalia, Blackpink and Lady Gaga.
J.Crew is a New York-based American specialty apparel retailer founded in 1983, known for preppy, versatile clothing for men, women and children sold through stores, catalogs and jcrew.com. Part of J.Crew Group (which also owns Madewell), the brand pairs updated wardrobe classics with quality fabrics and a run of buzzy cultural collaborations, and is executing a widely covered comeback under CEO Libby Wadle after emerging from a 2020 Chapter 11 restructuring.
Lafayette 148 New York is a privately held, vertically integrated luxury womenswear house founded in SoHo in 1996. Named for its original address at 148 Lafayette Street, the brand designs, produces, sells and fulfills clothing, footwear and accessories under one roof - from its Brooklyn Navy Yard headquarters to its owned atelier in Shantou, China. Known for intelligent, understated tailoring, luxurious fabrics and inclusive sizing across petite, missy and plus ranges, it serves professional and style-conscious women through its own boutiques, e-commerce site, AtelierDirect styling service and select luxury retailers.
Oscar de la Renta is a New York luxury fashion house founded in 1965 by the Dominican-American couturier of the same name. Known for feminine, occasion-driven evening wear and bridal gowns rooted in European couture craftsmanship, the brand designs ready-to-wear, accessories, handbags, jewelry, fragrances and home goods. It has dressed first ladies, celebrities and society clients for six decades and today operates as a private, family-run business led by CEO Alex Bolen, selling through boutiques, department stores and its own e-commerce.
Peter Millar is a Raleigh, North Carolina-based luxury lifestyle apparel brand founded in 2001 around a single cashmere sweater. It has grown into a full men's and women's collection spanning tailored clothing, sportswear, resort wear and technical golf apparel, sold through its own retail stores, e-commerce site, and premium wholesale channels such as golf pro shops and department stores. Owned by Swiss luxury group Richemont since 2012, Peter Millar pairs classic American style with performance fabrication and also operates the golf-lifestyle brand G/FORE, which it acquired in 2018.
PVH Corp. is one of the world's largest branded apparel companies, built around two iconic global lifestyle brands, Calvin Klein and TOMMY HILFIGER. Tracing its roots to an 1881 shirtmaking business in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, the New York-headquartered company designs, markets and distributes clothing, footwear and accessories in more than 40 countries through wholesale, retail and direct-to-consumer channels. Under CEO Stefan Larsson's PVH+ Plan, the company is concentrating on brand-building, digital and DTC-led growth, generating roughly $8.95 billion in annual revenue with more than 70% coming from outside the United States.
Vuori is a Carlsbad, California-based performance apparel company that blends athletic function with casual style. Founded in 2015 by Joe Kudla, it started as a direct-to-consumer men's activewear brand rooted in the coastal Southern California lifestyle and grew into a broad athleisure label for men and women. Known for soft technical fabrics like its DreamKnit and Ponto lines, Vuori sells online, through its own stores, and via wholesale partners including Nordstrom, REI and Equinox. A 2024 secondary investment led by General Atlantic and Stripes valued the company at $5.5 billion.
Another Tomorrow is a New York-based luxury fashion company building timeless womenswear with a sustainability-first model. Founded by former Morgan Stanley managing director Vanessa Barboni Hallik, it pairs farm-level material traceability with a digital ID on every garment, enabling provenance tracking, anti-counterfeiting, and authenticated resale. It was the first luxury fashion brand to earn B Corp certification and frames its work around human, animal, and environmental welfare.
Hill House Home is a New York-based direct-to-consumer lifestyle brand founded in 2016 by Nell Diamond. It started selling well-priced luxury bedding and home linens, then went viral with The Nap Dress - a cross between a nightgown and a day dress - in 2019. The brand has grown into a community-driven fashion and home label spanning dresses, sleepwear, accessories, kids' matching sets, and home goods, famous for selling collections out in minutes and building a devoted online following.
M.M.LaFleur is a New York-based direct-to-consumer womenswear brand that coined the term 'Power Casual' and built its business around solving a single problem: getting ambitious women dressed for work without wasting their time. Founded in 2013 by Sarah LaFleur, designer Miyako Nakamura, and Narie Foster, the company pairs thoughtfully engineered professional clothing with a free personal-styling service called Bento that curates a box of pieces around each customer. After a near-collapse during the pandemic, the company was rescued by a syndicate of women investors and refocused on the wardrobe needs of a hybrid working world.