The Future of Fashion Is Female: Nine Designers Leading the Way

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MARIA GRAZIA CHIURI
Actor Sarah Catherine Hook—lately seen as Piper on the third season of HBO’s The White Lotus, soon to appear in Netflix’s adaptation of the Emily Henry novel People We Meet on Vacation—wears Chiuri’s design for Dior; Dior boutiques. Photographed by Amy Troost. Fashion Editor: Tabitha Simmons. Vogue, August 2025.

Over the past few years, amidst the reshuffling of male creative directors at many of fashion’s most important houses, a question has emerged again and again—just where are all the female designers?

The answer is quite simple, actually: They’re making clothes that prioritize women’s multifaceted real lives rather than perceived fantasies about them—though that’s not to say their designs aren’t also sensual, or playful, or brutalist, or minimal, or twisted, or opulent, or made to desire and be desired in.

Givenchy’s Sarah Burton and Calvin Klein’s Veronica Leoni joined Chloé’s Chemena Kamali and Hermés’s Nadège Vanhée as heads of luxury heritage labels in the last season, and Louise Trotter will soon make her debut at Bottega Veneta. But more often than not, women are likely guiding empires of their own design. Miuccia Prada, Rei Kawakubo, Phoebe Philo, Stella McCartney, Tory Burch, Victoria Beckham, and Khaite’s Catherine Holstein preside over massive brands, and Simone Rocha, Martine Rose, Grace Wales Bonner, Diotima’s Rachel Scott, Chopova Lowena’s Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena-Irons lead smaller, independent ones.

This is certainly not a comprehensive list, but you get where we’re going with this—there are a lot of women designers out there when you start to look. So we’ll keep making these lists as long as we have to. We will shout out and exalt the ones we love, because we live in an attention economy wrapped inside the economy-economy. Because women are so often trained to put their head down and do the work; to have ambition, but not too much…

At the end of the day, it all comes down to one thing: They make the clothes we want to wear—that make us feel like the best version of ourselves; that show us alternate possibilities of who we are, who we can be, who we may want to be in the future.

Or, you know, they just design stuff that makes us go, “Damn, that’s cool! I’m gonna buy it.”

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STELLA MCCARTNEY
“Nothing flatters the form like a perfectly cut suit in beautiful, sustainable fabrics, and that’s become iconic to my fashion house,” says McCartney. “Something that makes you feel confident and like a boss bitch, and then you can hand it down to the next generation: It never ages, it never gets old.” Model Liu Wen in Stella McCartney; stella​mccartney​.com.


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CATHERINE HOLSTEIN, KHAITE
“We’re living in a moment where everything is constantly changing—I believe women want clothes that they don’t have to think twice about,” says Holstein, who launched Khaite in 2016. “There’s a certain honesty I want to maintain: not diluted, not complicated, but forward-looking and direct.”

She could hardly find a more fitting muse than actor Ella Beatty, who starred this year in high-profile New York productions of Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts (at Lincoln Center’s Newhouse Theater) and Hannah Moscovitch’s Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes (at the Minetta Lane Theatre). She wears a Khaite shirt and bustier; khaite.com. Ana Khouri cuff.


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NADÈGE VANHÉE, HERMÈS
“It’s about strength—about being sexy and sophisticated and just owning it.” So said Vanhée of her fall 2025 collection for Hermès, crammed full of sleek silhouettes crafted from ultrafine leather. In her fetching LWD (Hermès boutiques) layered over a top from Isabel Marant (isabelmarant.com), model Scarlett White certainly gets the picture.


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CHEMENA KAMALI, CHLOÉ
Model Stella Hanan leans into texture, shape, color, attitude—all of it!—in top-to-toe Chloé, as designed by creative director Kamali; chloe.com.


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VICTORIA BECKHAM
“I’m always searching for that chemistry between elegance and ease—the cut or construction that flatters in just the right way,” says Beckham. “Because as a woman, I know what it’s like to put something on and immediately feel like the best version of yourself.” Ugandan Canadian actor Whitney Peak—set to star next year in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping—wears a Victoria Beckham jacket; victoriabeckham.com.


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MIUCCIA PRADA
Sporty, sweet, a little subversive: Model Jessica Miller hits all of Miuccia Prada’s grace notes in her jacket, crop top, and skirt, all by Prada; prada​.com. Simone Rocha earring.


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SILVIA VENTURINI FENDI
“The Fendi story is a female one, with my grandmother having five daughters and my mother three,” says Venturini Fendi, who fêted her family business’s 100th anniversary this year. “At home, there was a very avant-garde interchange of roles for the time.” Channeling some of that dynamic history, model Karolina Spakowski’s citrusy yellow jacket, skirt, and matching shoes and bag reconcile prim mid-century shapes with decidedly more modern markers. Just see the daring slit of the skirt, or that frothy lace top. All from fendi.com.


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TORY BURCH
“There has never been a more important time for women designers,” says Burch, whose namesake label turned 21 this year. “They are innovative, intuitive, and they intrinsically understand the body and how women want to feel: confident, beautiful, and strong.” Model Adut Akech gleefully embraces both the dangly and the spangly in earrings and a dress by Tory Burch; toryburch.com.


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VERONICA LEONI, CALVIN KLEIN
Model Paloma Elsesser quells the noise—but ramps up the volume—in a coat designed by Leoni for Calvin Klein Collection; calvinklein.us. Fendi dress.


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MIUCCIA PRADA, MIU MIU
Model Alex Consani does mid-century sylph with a bit of a twist in a dress and stole from Miu Miu; miumiu.com.


In this story: hair, Esther Langham; makeup, Sally Branka; manicurist, Michina Koide; tailor, Jen Hebner at Carol Ai Studio. Produced by artProduction.