DESIGNERS TO WATCH

With a new sartorial season ushers in a fresh wave of talent. Meet the most exciting names in fashion, set to become the next big thing.

- MADELAINE CLARK

DURAN LANTINK

Although Dutch designer Duran Lantink first launched his namesake label in 2019, it took until his spring '24 collection to rightfully cement him as a fashion wunderkind and achieve mainstream acclaim. A recent location to the City of Light might have something to do with it: "I'm more conscious of showing fashion and it being received in Paris and not Amsterdam," he says. Motivated by a desire to create new silhouettes, in his signature "bubble" designs - which are now instantly recognisable - clothes shape the body rather than vice versa. His repertoire of sculptural and padded dresses, skirts, gilets and bomber jackets has proved catnip for celebrities and stylists; his designs are now regulars on magazine covers, though a stronger grip on commercial viability might need a bit more time. For Autumn '24, his unique design language even fed into skiwear, inspired by girls in Gstaad or Saint Moritz. Lantink views sustainability "as an opportunity to be creative rather than a limitation" and today works with 80 per cent deadstock materials in his collections. Even his website features an alteration option: you can request his team reinvent existing items and give them new life. As well as being stocked at Dover Street Market, Lantink's designs can be found in the MET Costume Institute and London's V&A. This year, he was made an LVMH Prize finalist, though he first applied in 2019 without progressing far, proving that if at first you don't succeed, try and try again.

YA YI