popular dress with fashion design names

 

High End Fashion Brands: of the World's Top Designers

Fashions fade, style is eternal - High fashion - more eloquently known as haute couture - is the creation of exclusive clothing made from exceptionally high quality fabric and sewn with expert finesse by trained hands.

Luxury fashion houses design, create and market high fashion clothing and accessories which are trend-setting, limited in quantity and extremely expensive to purchase.

For labels to be classified as a high fashion brand, the designer must show their collection at one of the world’s four annual major fashion weeks in Paris, Milan, London or New York.

Many of the world’s top designer brands are based in Europe, most notably across France, Italy and the UK, and despite global economic uncertainty the luxury fashion sector continues to grow faster than many other industries.

Because of this, major business publications such as CNBC, Forbes and Business Insider run a yearly financial analysis of the best performing brands on earth to determine what fashion house fares best in the sartorial sales stakes.

New Idea brings you a list of the world’s most famous fashion brands - and what you need to know about each before you invest.

• Dolce & Gabbana

Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana was founded in 1985 by designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana.

After presenting their first collection for women at Milan Fashion Week in 1985, the fashion gurus and former couple opened their first store in 1986.

In 1992, the house showcased its first line for men and also launched its first eponymous fragrance.

Dolce & Gabbana create a wide variety of fashion products including clothing, footwear, handbags, sunglasses, watches, jewellery, perfumes and cosmetics.

Anne Hathaway, Emma Roberts and Eva Mendes are all notable celebrities who often wear D&G pieces.

The brand also designed costumes for the 2000s international tours of Beyoncé, Kylie Minogue, Missy Elliott and Mary J. Blige.

Madonna appeared in Dolce & Gabbana’s 2010 campaign and models such as Emily Ratajkowski, Ashley Graham and Vittoria Ceretti walked in the 2018 show at Milan Fashion Week.

Ashley Graham walks the runway for Dolce & Gabbana during Milan Fashion Week 2018

In recent years, the brand has felt the brunt of numerous public controversies, most of which were triggered by the bizarre social media ravings of Stefano Gabbana himself.

After cruelling trolling a number of high profile celebrities including Selena Gomez and Chiara Ferragni on Instagram, the designer went on a racist rant against China which involved slurs such as “China, ignorant dirty smelling mafia”.

This led to the brand’s Shanghai show being boycotted by models and subsequently cancelled, while luxury online retailer Net-A-Porter pulled all Dolce & Gabbana products from its platforms.

• Burberry

Burberry is perhaps Britain’s best known luxury fashion house with headquarters in London, England.

This historic and iconic label was founded in 1856 by Thomas Burberry, and continues to market its trademark trench coats, ready-to-wear outerwear, handbags, fragrances, sunglasses and cosmetics to this day.

The quintessentially British household name made headlines in March 2018 by appointing Italian creative Riccardo Tisci as Head Designer.

Tisci previously worked with Parisian house Givenchy for 12 years, where he pioneered shark teeth and nose ring motifs.

Israeli actress Gal Gadot wears the iconic Burberry trench coat

The Duchess of Cambridge famously wore Burberry for her 2017 Vogue cover.

Since Tisci’s takeover last year, Burberry has amassed a new legion of celebrity fans including Rihanna (his longtime pal), Madonna, Julia Roberts and Carey Mulligan.

It girl models including Kendall Jenner, Irina Shayk and Cara Delevigne are all regulars on the Burberry catwalk.

Kendall Jenner walks in the Burberry show during London Fashion Week 2018

• Valentino

Valentino S.p.A is an Italian fashion house founded by designer Valentino Garavani in 1960.

Inspired by his early years spent working in Paris, Garavani opened his first upscale fashion boutique on Rome’s Via Condotti and began to create clothing, footwear, glasses, fragrances, watches and accessories, initially primarily for women.

The house is known for its trademark fabric shade known as “Valentino red”.

Meghan Markle wore a red Valentino dress for an official engagement during the February 2019 royal tour of Morocco.

The brand made its international debut in 1962 in Florence, and garnered such acclaim Valentino went on to design custom wedding dresses for icons such as Elizabeth Taylor, Jennifer Lopez, Anne Hathaway, Courtney Cox and Princess Madeleine of Sweden.

Valentino was the favourite designer of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Major celebrities who often opt for Valentino gowns or awards shows include Julia Roberts, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Penelope Cruz and Keira Knightley.

Since the summer of 2016, Pierpaolo Piccioli has been the creative director of Valentino.

• Off-White

Founded in 2013, Milan-based streetwear label Off-White is the brainchild of American fashion designer entrepreneur and Dj Virgil Abloh.

Abloh, who has also been the artistic director at Louis Vuitton since March 2018, serves as chief executive officer of the Italian house.

Off-White designs include trend-setting throwbacks like cycling shorts and the now-iconic yellow industrial belt.

Paper Magazine report the belt was the world's 6th most popular women's fashion product in 2018.

Abloh has amassed a huge cult following for his infant label through the help of social media and well-placed influencer friends, including models Bella Hadid, Kendall Jenner and Hailey Baldwin who all regularly rock the designs.

Beyoncé is a huge fan of the new label and Abloh also dresses many of the Victoria's Secret ambassadors for red carpet events including Dutch model Romee Strijd.

The label is also close to the heart of eccentric genius Kanye West, who first met Abloh when they were both interning at Rome-based fashion house house Fendi.

Off-White designer Virgil Abloh with models Gigi and Bella Hadid and Karlie Kloss at the finale show for Paris Fashion Week 2019

• Givenchy

Falling just inside the top 10 is luxury Parisian fashion house Givenchy.

Founded in 1952 by Hubert de Givenchy and Jaani Robert Durfy, the clothing, fragrance and cosmetics empire is now owned by luxury conglomerate LVMH.

The brand became known for its iconic shirt dress, and Givenchy became the first high fashion designer to create a luxury ready-to-wear clothing line for women.

In 1969, Hubert de Givenchy launched his first collection for men, and a decade later received the accolade of Most Elegant Man of the Year by The Best Magazine.

The award was presented by Audrey Hepburn.

Audrey Hepburn was the muse and friend of Hubert de Givenchy

Givenchy has been worn many times by some of the world’s most iconic women, including Lauren Bacall, Greta Garbo, Elizabeth Taylor, Marlene Dietrich and Princess Grace of Monaco.

Contemporary devotees of the label include Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Kim Kardashian, Emma Stone, Julia Roberts and Rooney Mara.

If you want to read more about fashion and trends, check out New Idea's Beauty and Style page!