3 Designers That Are Breaking the Mold of Fashion Week
Image Courtesy: The Fashion Spot
Fashion Week has always been iconic for its drama, celebrity cameos, and flashing lights. Whether in New York, London, Milan, or Paris, the chaos and luxury are accompanied by an unspoken norm: designers and models effortlessly captivating the audience through performance. But every so often, new designers enter this world and remind us that fashion isn’t just about the performance, it’s about the storytelling, and the underlying message the designer hopes to convey.
Across this new generation of creators, here are three designers who are breaking the mold of Fashion Week and making the industry feel new again.
Stephen Biga
Growing up in New Jersey, Stephen Biga would visit New York City every chance he could get, hopping on trains to parade through vintage shops and finding inspiration for his signature, dreamy style. While attending Parsons and designing for luxury powerhouses like Proenza Schouler and Rodate, Biga impressively began building up his professional fashion portfolio, eventually gaining the courage and ambition to create a brand entirely his own: Mel Usine.
This unique and distinctive name for his brand has a surprisingly unexpected origin. Biga took inspiration from the classic French tale Le Roman de Mélusine, about a river nymph who hides her true identity from her mortal lover. The story eventually gives in to the question of curiosity as her forbidden lover spies on her, turning her into a dragon, and then, she’s gone.
Image Courtesy: Vogue
To honor this piece of folklore, Biga found power in Mélusine’s transformation and named his personal brand after the iconic history. This designer’s debut collection in New York features silhouettes that bring the vibes of medieval mythology but are reimagined through a gender ambiguous, contemporary lens. Consisting of flowing shapes, textured fabrics, and armor-like structures that sway in the air, Biga’s work brings a sense of nostalgia and a feeling of femininity, strength, and mystery.
Joshua Ewusie
Fashion designer Joshua Ewusie is a recent graduate of Central Saint Martins and is a recipient of a Chanel scholarship, which has given him the opportunity and freedom to develop his signature style: unique laser-cut leather pieces and artisanal fabrics sourced straight from Ghana, as a homage to his family’s legacy.
His designs explore the heritage of his Ghanaian background, but add a mix of the modern, aesthetic pulse of London fashion, totally transforming the visual scape of Fashion Week. His current work is roaring in cultural identity, shown through the leather skirts laced with circles inspired by West African prints and the subtle references to traditional garments from his mother's wardrobe. Evident in these details of his collection, Ewusie rewrites the story of Fashion Week by remixing popular trends and adding meaningful and unique aesthetics to create a remarkable collection filled with love and identity.
Image Courtesy: Vogue
Ewusie’s label, EWUSIE, celebrates these ideas and builds a sense of community by blending elements of design from the UK and West Africa. This upcoming spring, he’ll debut his first stand-alone show in London as an ode to Lewisham, the English borough that raised him. He has been collaborating with local screen printers and studios in the area in preparation for this show, proving that inspiration isn't always found in the most complicated spaces, but in the place, we call home.
Oscar Ouyang
Oscar Ouyang’s journey was a bit more unconventional, as he started at Harper’s Bazaar China, interning at just 17 years old. While he loved the glossy, creative layouts of fashion magazines, he quickly realized as an aspiring designer that he belonged behind the sewing machine, as he was more interested in creating the clothes themselves than writing about them.
Ouyang advanced his career in 2023 when he left Beijing for London to attend Central Saint Martins, just like Ewusie, and his designs immediately took off. Before he even officially launched his brand, famous retailers placed orders for his pieces, an insane accomplishment for a designer still in school.
Now, at 26, Ouyang is preparing for his solo runway show titled Don’t Shoot the Messenger, inspired by winged details that resemble the wings of owls, eagles, and doves. This idea of intercepted communication in a hyper-surveilled, post-digital world is a collection of work that plays with contrasted silhouettes and motion, creating pieces that feel alive, as if they're about to take flight.
His collections express the fine line between conceptual and emotional ideas in fashion, the kind of work that conveys a message without saying anything at all.
Image Courtesy: AnOther
These three designers are all transforming what Fashion Week looks like through their own respective lenses. Their designs aren’t about chasing trends or big-name labels but about creating immersive collections filled with legends, heritage, and a bit of mystery.
In an industry often obsessed with perfection, Stephen Biga, Joshua Ewusie, and Oscar Ouyang are all showing us how, sometimes, imperfection with purpose is better. Each designer is bending fashion’s rules in all the right ways. Fashion Week may still be about the glitz and glamour, but with designers like these on the rise, this iconic event is starting to embody something much more.
Strike Out,
Writer: Melany Rodriguez
Editor: Isabelle Kim
Graphic Designer:
Tallahassee