Acne Studios is a ‘multidisciplinary’ fashion house based in Stockholm Sweden. It was founded in 1996 as a part of an innovative collection ACNE. The brand offers, both men and women’ with ready-to-wear clothes, shoes and accessories.
The name ACNE stands for “Ambition to Create Novel Expressions”. ACNE focused on multiple areas such as graphic design, film and advertising. In 1997, the founder Jonny Johansson created one hundred pairs of denim jeans using red stitching and gave it to his closet friends and family. These jeans quickly grew into popularity, and Acne Studios quickly expanded their horizons by producing other items of clothing. In 2006, Acne Studios became an independent company and detached itself from Acne Film, Acne Advertising and Acne Digital.
Adidas
Adidas is a German ‘multinational corporation’ that designs, as well as manufactures, sports wear ranging their very popular sports footwear to shirts, bags and other sports related wear. Adidas is based in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany. It is the holding company for the Adidas Group, which is made up of Reebok, TaylorMade-Adidas, Rockport and FC Bayern Munich. Adidas is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe and second largest in the world.
Adidas was founded by Adolf Dassler in 1949, following a quarrel between him and his older brother, Rudolf; who had created Puma in 1924. Rapidly their brands became rivals. Adidas is know for their three parallel bars, which is incorporated into their brand logo.
Alexander McQueen
Alexander McQueen is a British fashion house, founded by designer Lee Alexander McQueen in 1992. The house’s early collections caused controversy as he used “shock tactics” and the brand earned the name of “the hooligan of the English Fashion”. Alexander McQueen organised elaborate, distinctive runway shows; for example his Spring 2005’s human chess game. Alexander McQueen launched his first menswear collection in the Spring/Summer of 2005. Head designer, McQueen, committed suicide on the afternoon of 11th February 2010. Sarah Burton in now currently the creative director of the luxury brand.
Alexander Wang
Alexander Wang is an American designer who set up his own brand in 2005. Wang designs clothes with a unique way of portraying shapes in a minimalistic style that combines patterns and playful prints to create a lines that is adored by all fashion lovers.
Alexander Wang presented a full women ready-to-wear collection in 2007. In 2006, Wang, received the top award from the Vogue/CFDA Fashion Fund, and launched his handbag line. Alexander Wang and high street brand H&M collaborated on a collection together, this took the cool from Wang to the affordable, popular H&M. T by Alexander Wang, is a sporty, best selling, fashion line by the brand.
Armani
Armani is a French fashion house, founded by Giorgio Armani in 1975. The brand designs and manufactures haute couture, ready-to-wear, leather products, jewellery, cosmetics and homeware. The brand itself has several labels from the most exclusive and expensive to the more accessible label; Armani Prive, Giorgio Armani, Emporio Armani, Armani Collezioni, AJ I Armani Jeans and AX I Armani Exchange. The brand collaborated with Emaar Properties, a chain of luxury hotels and resorts across the world – including hotels in Paris, Shanghai and New York.
Balenciaga
Balenciaga is a French fashion house, founded by the Spanish designer Cristóbal Balenciaga. The brand is known for it’s unusual trademarks, such as bubble skirts and modern, yet feminine shapes used in the clothes. He opened his first store in Spain, in 1918 and was his clothing was highly praised by the aristocracy and Spanish royal family. However when the Spanish Civil War took place, he was forced to close down; this led him to Paris. In 1937, he launched his first runway show; the collection was inspired by the Spanish Renaissance. This collection became an immediate success, and two years later he became a global sought after designer. Balenciaga revolutionised the fashion world and shaped it into what we have currently. His silhouettes allowed him to control the relationship between his clothes and the specific women’s bodies. In 2012, it was announced that Alexander Wang would take over the helm from Nicolas Ghesquière after his 15 years there. In early October 2016, after three years as creative director, Wang stepped down and the baton was passed to Demna Gvasalia. The house returned to creating couture collections in July 2020; having not designed once since 1968.
Balmain
Balmain is a haute couture French fashion house founded by Pierre Balmain in 1946. In the late 1930’s, Pierre served in the French air force and after peace had been declared he worked at Lucien Lelong, during which he met Christian Dior. He opened his own fashion house under his name, and his first collection was released in 1945, and his first fragrance was launched in 1949. Balmain had consistently set a very high standard for all couture; Balmain believed in fashion that would display elegance simply, to create easy glamorous looks that had extreme attention to detail without it being flashy.
Pierre Balmain passed away in 1982. His list of successors contain some of the most sought after designers, he had the very best take the reins of his fashion house. The current Head Designer is Olivier Rousteing; since April 2011.
Bottega Veneta
Bottega Veneta is an Italian luxury goods house. It was founded in 1966 and established by Michele Taddei. Bottega Veneta’s headquarters are located in Vicenza, in the north east of Italy. company, first, began producing artisanal leather goods; the brand developed a leather-weaving signature technique called intrecciato. The brand was purchased by Gucci Group, now it is a part of the French multinational group called Kering. Bottega Veneta, also now has fine jewellery, eyewear, fragrances and furniture collections in addition to their outstanding leather goods. It introduced it’s first women’s ready-to-wear collection in February 2005, and a year later presented it’s first men’s runway show. In July 2018, British designer Daniel Lee was appointed Creative Director of the brand.
Burberry
Burberry is a British luxury fashion house that designs luxury outerwear, it was founded by Thomas Burberry in Basingstoke, Hampshire, England in 1856. Its first store opened in Haymarket, London in 1891 – it stayed as an independent family business until 1955 when it was acquired. Burberry is most famous for its trench coats and it’s very distinctive tartan pattern. The brand doesn’t just produce clothing, but fashion accessories, cosmetics, fragrances and sunglasses. In May 2001, Christopher Bailey was appointed Creative Director until stepping down in 2018 to be replaced by Riccardo Tisci.
Calvin Klein
Calvin Klein is an American fashion house founded by the designer Calvin Klein. The company’s headquarters are in Manhattan, New York City and is owned by Philips-Van Heusen and the current creative director is Francisco Costa. Calvin Klein consists of 11 different brands that range from fragrance, home accessories and sports wear to their most famous lines of underwear, jeans and their runway collections.
In 1968, Klein created Calvin Klein Limited, a coat shop in the York Hotel located in New York City. His first collection was a youthful line of coats and dresses. By 1971, Klein added sportswear, blazers and lingerie to his female collection. 1980’s, everyone wanted Calvin Klein jeans and it became a global frenzy. He also introduced a line of boxer shorts for women and later produced an extraordinarily successful collection for men’s underwear. In the December 2002, Calvin Klein Inc was sold to Philips Van Heusen Corp. In late 2016, Calvin Klein stepped down and Raf Simons took over the leadership of the house.
Céline
Céline is a French fashion house founded in 1945 by Céline Vipiana. It is a ready-to-wear clothing and luxury leather goods brand. In 1945, Céline and her husband, Richard started a luxury brand. She started by producing made-to-measure children’s shoes. In 1960, the brand decided to have a change, and focus on ready-to-wear fashion for women with a sportswear touch to the pieces. Furthermore, the brand offered bags, loafers, clothing and fashion accessories. In 1964, they launched a fragrance and a new collection of accesoires named “American Sulky”. The ‘trench’ became the brand’s most iconic product, thus the popularity for Céline’s leather goods led to her opening a leather goods factory in Florence, Italy. The current creative director of Céline is Phoebe Philo, and she has won numerous awards for her work at the brand.
Charlotte Olympia
Charlotte Olympia is a British shoe and accessories brand founded in 2008 by Charlotte Olympia Dellal in 2008. Charlotte’s first footwear collection appeared during London Fashion Week in February 2008. Two years later, she opened her first store on Maddox Street, London. Charlotte Olympia designs are influenced by cinematic glamour and mvid stars from the 40’s and 50’s. Her design aesthetic is to create feminine, playful shoes and accessories with ‘sense of humour’.
Chanel
Chanel is a French privately held high fashion house that specialises in haute couture, ready-to-wear clothes and accessories. Chanel was founded in 1909 by Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel. Coco Chanel provided fashion to a women’s taste, which was elegance in a dress and power within a suit. The House of Chanel is well known for the “little black dress”, the No. 5 de Chanel perfume and the Chanel suit. Chanel revolutionised all aspects of fashion, from haute couture to everyday fashion, they have created garments that are functional yet flattering upon a woman. The current head designer is Karl Lagerfeld, and he took over in 1981. Like Coco, he looked back to the past to find inspiration for his designs, and incorporated the iconic Chanel fabrics and finishing touches to his pieces, such as tweed, gold chains and accents. Karl kept the signature fashion of Chanel but brought a more modern touch to the brand.
Chloé
Chloé is a French fashion house founded in 1952 by Gaby Aghion in Paris, France. The brand is owned by the Luxury Brands company, Richemont Group. When Gaby founded Chloé, her vision was to create a luxury ‘’prêt-à-porter’ brand. At the time luxury fashion houses only produced Haute Couture fashion, however few were able to afford such a high standard. Gaby Aghion saw a gap in the 1950’s market, and decided to design a line of ‘off the rack’ high quality clothes using fine, soft fabric; thus the Prêt-à-Porter market was created.
Christian Louboutin
Christian Louboutin is a French footwear company founded by Louboutin himself. The shoes are distinguished by their shiny, red lacquered soles. Christian was expelled from school at the age of 16; two years later he started work at the shoe designer Charles Jourdan. In the early 1990’s, Christian launched his first line of womens shoes, and added the red soles in 1993. He expanded from shoes to handbags in 2003, and in 2011 his first men’s shoe collection launched.