Late last year, after it was announced that Séan McGirr would be taking over from Sarah Burton, the beloved and long-time creative director at Alexander McQueen, something that was already obvious became too glaring to ignore—most creative director positions at most luxury conglomerates belong to men. But if women aren’t given as many chances to creatively helm billion dollar maisons, that certainly doesn’t mean that they don’t represent a large portion of the industry—it’s just that usually they’re helming their own independently-owned labels.
They say that you can’t be what you can’t see, so we thought we’d put out a call to some of our favorite independent designers to find out the women that inspired them creatively and professionally. Their answers were wide-ranging, but it wasn’t surprising to see a few names come up over and over again: Vivienne Westwood, Miuccia Prada, and Rei Kawakubo, three designers who created empires on their singular and unrelenting visions, and who, through their decades in the business, offer their peers and up-and-comers alike a blueprint for how to hone their own creativity with longevity at the forefront rather than viral trends. Below, scroll through to get to know the designers who influenced your favorite designers.
Batsheva Hay, Batsheva
Vivienne Westwood, Norma Kamali, and Anna Sui are the three that pop into my mind the fastest. With each of them, you can just feel the porousness between the designer and the clothes that they are making. Vivienne was always her best model; no one brought the same charisma, humor, and style to her clothes than she did. Norma just created a world that was so strong, sensual, and revolutionary. And Anna funnels so many references through her lens, and I always love the way she sees the world.
Anna Sui
I came to New York in the early ’70s, and I never thought about being a feminist, but when I think about all my bosses, they were always women. I think I never lasted at a job when there was a man boss because back then it was a whole different mentality of how they would treat you, like [calling you] ‘girly, come here.’ It just never sat well with me, getting called girly, and them never even knowing your name. It was such a great learning experience, seeing all these really dynamic women and having these really incredible bosses that had such vision and a command even over their upper management because they really knew how to make clothes. It wasn’t just a hunch here and a hunch there. They really understood how to do it.
When I was at Parsons in my second year, there was a Rags magazine, and they would cover all the interesting boutiques and up and coming designers, the edgier designers, and there was this woman, Erika Elias, that they wrote about, and she had this label Charlie’s Girls and I always loved the ads. I overheard two seniors talking about a job available there, so I ran there with my student portfolio and I got the job, and that’s why I never went back to Parsons: because I started working. When I got the job, she gave me my own design room with a draper and two sewers. And there were four divisions and I could do anything I wanted within those four divisions. The one thing that she always was a stickler about was research, like finding the best gingham—the gingham that we could afford the minimums and get the color we want. She was just such a stickler that you had to really, really research and give her a choice of things, so that she could choose what would work the best for us instead of just somebody else really doing that part. I learned the fabric market that way from her. She was just a very, very disciplined person. People would say that if you work for Erika, you could do anything because she was such a tough boss. So I think that was really a fortunate first job.
Rachel Comey
When I moved to NYC, I discovered many designers that had their own stores or were putting collections together that were incredible in each of their own ways. Nicole Noselli and Daphne Gutierrez had a line called Bruce that was so chic and interesting, lots of draped yet tailored looks. A real feminine strength. Katayone Adeli had a shop on Bond Street that emitted cool and provocation. Long lean lines, slim leather jackets, body skimming silk knits. Magda Berliner had a collection of one-of-a-kind pieces all made from doilies, tablecloths, and found fabrics—a pioneer of the one-off/upcycle/doily dress concept, as well as other super interesting mixes of fabrics and silhouettes. Her lookbooks were modeled by herself. And what about Jane Mayle? Another designer with her own unique vision. Always glamorous but with the right amount of subversion. Daryl K always had a covetable item... a boot or a jean. There were many others at that time that were interesting and unique in their own way, like Miho Aoki at United Bamboo, Susan Cianciolo, Rebecca Danenberg. I’m sure each of these women could/would have become largely influential designers who pushed the conversation forward for womenswear had the opportunity arisen for them.
Catherine Holstein, Khaite
Miuccia Prada. She observes, explores, and creates, while challenging and pushing boundaries, all of which comes through to the customer. This very commitment and consistency is apparent to her audience, and transcends the idea that this is a conversation constantly evolving.
Margaret Howell
Three women designers come to mind:
Jean Muir, who was minimal, unfussy, and elegant. Similarly, Jil Sander, though she was less sophisticatedly smart and more of a casual elegance. And Katharine Hamnett, who brought an equality to both men and women’s clothes while referencing workwear.
Tory Burch
Claire McCardell invented American sportswear and genuinely revolutionized the way we dress in the 1940s. So many of her ideas are taken for granted now: ballet flats, wrap dresses, spaghetti straps. She was the first designer to put pockets in a dress, used hooks-and-eyes to define the waist in lieu of corsets, and cut fabric to move with the body, not against it. Everything was intentional, nothing was frivolous, and comfort was as vital as glamour. Most importantly, Claire encouraged women to ‘dress for yourself’ — not for anyone else.
Laura
Deanna Fanning, Kiko Kostadinov
The women that stand out to us, have their own large and hyper successful business structures; Miuccia Prada and Rei Kawakubo. Perhaps this is the only way to really be globally seen, to exit others corporate structures and define one’s own.
Margherita Maccapani Missoni, Maccapani
I would be deceiving if I were not to begin by talking about my mother Angela and my grandmother Rosita. The latter was Missoni’s creative director when I was born and mother took over when I was 13; fashion and creation were one side of a wider aesthetic picture that I inhaled throughout life. They undoubtedly influenced both my taste and my desire to pursue this career. An entrepreneurial attitude is another trait I learned from them.
That said, the classic Missoni pattern feels very “normal” to me and I get a kick out of things that are quite distant from it—I think that the female designer that has inspired me the most would be Vivienne Westwood. I’m drawn to her style, I admire how she kept it consistent and I’m inspired by how she lived her role as CD, and how she used her platform.
Hillary Taymour, Collina Strada
Vivienne Westwood will be my forever inspiration of being a woman in a man’s world and continuously breaking the rules. She was a pioneer as an activist, balancing fashion and politics with a unique creative vision. It is rare to have designers that are not mimicking culture but creating it.
Lucinda Chambers, Colville
I have been incredibly fortunate to have worked with women throughout my career. First with Miuccia Prada for many years and also with Jil Sander. I also continue to work alongside Molly Molloy, my partner in Colville and have done for over 15 years, having been at Marni with Molly previously.
In my early career, both Vivienne Westwood and Donna Karan were wonderful examples of dynamic powerful women furrowing their own creative vision. It’s true to say and I’m not sure purely a coincidence that I have never worked alongside a designer who was a man! Having said that, men have always been generous and foresightful in giving me a lot of creative freedom whilst often running the companies. But it is true and has been for a very long time that there is an absence of women around a boardroom and in the roles of CEOs. This is a great shame. It is statistically proven that to have this balance makes for a much healthier and, very importantly, a more profitable company. This is something that we all have to strive for.
Molly Molloy, Colville
I’ve been lucky enough to work with some incredible women during my career, Bella Freud, Betty Jackson, Consuelo Castiglioni, JJ Martin, and of course Lucinda Chambers, all running their own thriving businesses and all with their own innate superpowers. Warriors, teachers, nurturers, givers, inspiring leaders, frontier breakers, individual and driven. I am full of gratitude, respect, admiration, and pride that I got to work with them all. They inspired and pushed me as a woman and as a creative. Consuelo and Lucinda encouraged me to start my own magazine while at Marni, Betty convinced me to start Colville, and JJ championed Colville from the sidelines, even during presentations for her own brand, encouraging the journalists to go and check out Colville. None are frightened of other people’s creativity; they thoroughly encouraged it and set the bar for how I run Colville.
Carly Mark, Puppets and Puppets
I wouldn’t have started Puppets without meeting Raffaella Hanley of Lou Dallas. I walked in some of her earlier shows and was able to see fashion up close that wasn’t corporate and made by an artist. She just makes it work, the way she wants it to be, which I have a lot of respect for.
Gabriela Hearst
Elsa Schiaparelli, for sure. I don’t know if people know this, but one of her first collections was done with Armenian refugees. It was a knitwear collection.
It was women leading the design charge in the ’40s, ’50s. You had Jeanne Lanvin, you had Gabrielle Chanel, you had Schiap, you had Gaby Aghion [of Chloé], Madame Grès, Vionnet. It was really a women-led force. But undeniably, it’s Vivienne Westwood for me. Both Schiaparelli and Westwood worked from a timeless perspective. You look at the Pirate boot from Vivienne Westwood, right? That last, it’s a last from the 1700s. It was created in 1976. So we’re talking about 47 years of a boot that looks cool. That’s just from the design perspective. And then her stance in everything, and how radical she was. I think both play with their radical attitude in different ways. From living designers, I would say Miuccia Prada, for her steadiness, and her ability to evolve.
Willie Norris, Outlier
I first came across the name (and work of) Isabel Toledo in 2005. There was a photo of her and Ruben photographed in their New York studio photographed by Norman Jean Roy and published in Vogue. I was in junior year of high school, and I was just beginning to realize that clothing spoke to me and that I could speak (and sometimes scream!) to the world through clothing. As I learned more about her, I began to think of her as a silent mentor—a fellow self-taught “immersion learner” that I could watch move through the world. I love how much she embraced being an “American fashion designer,” and how she loved mass-production and machinery as much as she loved couture and handwork. She was, in my opinion, the truest heir to Cristóbal Balenciaga. Her designs were playful and rigorous and oh so New York. When I began transitioning, I gained a new appreciation for how she designed for herself in a way only a woman really can; a way that leaves the thinnest of veils between a woman’s person and a woman’s work. She tragically died in 2019 from breast cancer and, while I never met her, I feel like I know her through her work and continue to learn form her. She was peerless, contrarian and obsessive—like the best designers always are. When I’m feeling timid or feckless, or like my talent is linked in any way to industry-accolades, I think of her and return to my work.
Laura Mulleavy, Rodarte
Well, what female designer doesn’t inspire me is more the question for me because considering all of the glass ceilings that are there. I am inspired by all of my contemporaries; the people that we started with, and even the people that started brands 120 years ago. I would pick the Callot Soeurs first, because they were like-minded sisters within our industry. Also Norma Kamali, who I think is incredible.
Kate Mulleavy, Rodarte
I think certainly Vionnet has had a huge influence on us in terms of liberated garment-making. I feel like she let the fabric inspire her creations and she kind of organically enhanced the material she worked with. I think a lot of designers think in terms of silhouette and how they can ‘create a dramatic silhouette’, but I feel like she created a dramatic silhouette that also felt like you wanted to live in it, you wanted to wear it. Certainly at the time period she was designing, that was a real liberation for people to have garments that they felt like they could move freely in.
Madame Grès was also a huge one for me. I just find it so technically amazing, and so brilliant. A lot of times in fashion, the wow factor or the theatricality of a show can be in how someone creates volume. And her work doesn’t need any of that. It’s so intentional and so extremely difficult, and I would say it’s almost impossible to recreate those glasses. Sonia Rykiel is also a huge one, I just love her spirit. Rei Kawakubo, who’s a genius… There’s just so many. I could go on and on.
Cynthia Merhej, Renaissance Renaissance
There are too many female designers who inspire me to name them all —from the greats Madame Vionnet and Madame Grès, to Rei Kawakubo, Ann Demeulemeester, Vivienne Westwood, and Martine Rose. Obviously my number one inspiration is my mother. I know there has been a lot of talk recently about women not being appointed to houses, but one thing I learnt from my mother is the importance and joy of being independent. I don’t think it’s any surprise that so many great women own and operate their own fashion houses and have developed incredible legacies, because we know the system wasn’t built for us, so we create our own. We aren’t princesses waiting to be appointed and for the world to wake up with our greatness—we’re too busy out here building empires.
Cecilie Bahnsen
There are so many incredible women that I’ve worked under and have learned from throughout my career before launching my own brand. One that stands out is Anja Vang Kragh who I worked under at the Royal Theatre of Copenhagen and at John Galliano. She took me under wing and introduced me to what French couture really is. The dedication to detail and craftsmanship that I learned from her really helped inform who I am as a designer and is something that I bring to every collection I create. I have also long admired Miuccia Prada for creating this fully feminine style that is filled with so much personality and attitude while remaining timeless. She creates pieces to be loved just as much now as in 50 years.
Melitta Baumeister
Design has the utmost importance to me and the lack of women in leading positions at the big houses has nothing to do with design. It is another symptom of the centuries old imbalance throughout society and it also reveals how little integrity these houses really have. Against a common belief, it becomes obvious that design quality at these big houses is just one of requirements and it is being outweighed more often than not. We all can fill in what these presumptions, prejudices and beliefs are that overpower the actual work. And that what should be, but rarely is at the center of attention.
As a student I was always inspired by a certain courage and boldness of design, which was obviously to be found among female as well as male designers. That distinction never mattered much to me as it didn’t say anything about the quality of design. Bad work doesn’t discriminate. The common denominator that made particular designs, designers and their teams resonate with me was to be found in their characters, obsessions and approaches to creativity. Madame Grès is one of them. Her work stood out to me, even before knowing anything about her. Then I found out that she initially wanted to become a sculptor, which might have lead to her draping directly on the body and redefining her approach to pattern making. As well as her courage and her integrity when facing the challenges of her times. All this I see reflected in my work and studio.
We never met, but there have been paths in our lives that lead us to make work that resonates with each other. Deep down it feels that we think and design along with each other and I wish I can cherish that connection and carry it further for other generations of designers to think along with.
Rachel Scott, Diotima
It’s Mrs. Prada, obviously. Icon, mother. I cannot wait to meet her one day and have a collaboration with Church’s [laughs]. But, to be honest, she is just incredibly smart. The level of intelligence that she has is so inspiring, and there’s a subtlety and a nuance to how she creates collections. I’m not necessarily a huge fan of the [collections with] Raf Simons, but I am a fan of what she has been doing at Miu Miu in the wake of it. I think that she is the queen of subversion, and gets in the middle of very commercial realms, with a super commercial business, but is able to translate abstract ideas in a very delicate manner and with such finesse.
Her business is also inspiring. The whole plan I have for a brick-and-mortar for Diotima would be to have something in Kingston [Jamaica] and have an atelier and a cultural space with art galleries and film screenings, and that’s really the whole idea behind Fondazione Prada as well. There is no one that is doing what she is doing. She is a genius, and with no ego. For her to have invited Raf to join her as a co-designer, I don’t think anybody would have ever done that. I just hope that one day I get to have a meal with her.
Johanna Ortiz
I love women creating for women and I deeply admire female designers who forge their paths in fashion, sharing a unique perspective with the world. I could name so many as they have all influenced me in every way, the way I lead my company and the way I live my life, as a woman. Carolina Herrera, for being the first to showcase exquisite Latin elegance to the world. Maria Grazia Chiuri, for her collaborative work with artisans and for the value she places on heritage and craftsmanship. Diane von Furstenberg, for her commitment to women and female empowerment. Phoebe Philo, for leaving a lasting mark on an era. Stella McCartney and Gabriela Hearst, for raising awareness and making sustainability and better practices the center of the conversation.
Ashlynn Park, Ashlyn
Phoebe Philo is a female designer who I respect for her uniquely achieved artistic excellence and commercial success. As a creative director and business owner, I hold the responsibility of overseeing both the creative vision and process as well as the business aspects of the company. Philo’s recent launch of her namesake label where she serves as both creative director and majority business owner is inspiring.
When I reflect on my time with Yohji Yamamoto, there was a sense of responsibility and pride in the accomplishments that came with working for him. Now, walking in the same path as this legendary designer, I appreciate, even more, the honor and influence he had on me. At Ashlyn, I hope my team is feeling a similar sense of accomplishment as I envision their names shining in the future. Akin to Phoebe Philo, one must successfully balance both commercial and artistic aspects, as great work and a sustainable business emerges from achieving this. Balance, resilience, adaptability, and perseverance are all integral qualities of female designers. And there is always a wise mother behind such individuals. I eagerly hope for more female creative directors in fashion who will wisely bring inspiration to others in the near future.
Nicky Zimmermann, Zimmermann
There are many female designers that I love and wear, it’s always hard to name just one. As a lover of print, one particular hero of mine is Celia Birtwell, the textile and fashion designer. She has a library of incredible designs and I’ve always loved her bold prints. She has also done some amazing print work over many decades, with designers like Ossie Clark in the ’60s/’70s and many others. Great prints and how they combine with fashion in a way that feels timeless is hard to get right. She’s a designer and artist I’ve always found inspiring.
Lauren Manoogian
While my medium revolves around clothing, my perspective, viewing clothing as a textile / object or vessel, led me to consider Anni Albers. The resonance lies in her experimental approach to materials and close creative collaboration with her partner, mirroring aspects of my own work. Inspired by how she allowed her process to evolve across various mediums and perspectives, I find her inquisitive nature about materials enduring. Balancing commercial projects, art, and research, she navigated tradition and craft in a modern way—an aspect that deeply inspires me. Although I engage in producing tangible products daily, I believe maintaining core aspirations linked to the initial impulse to create is crucial. I align more with the concept of clothing as an extension of a process or practice with a garment as the outcome rather than being lead by a merchandising or marketing structure. I think that’s why being independent is hard but interesting place for a woman to carve their own path.
Caroline Hu
Rei Kawakubo and Phoebe Philo have really inspired me. I’m not just into their looks for the design; it’s the soul and the powerful messages behind them that I respect. They keep putting out their ideas, even when it’s tough, and that keeps me pushing forward, too.
I’m the kind of designer who thinks a lot about the deeper meaning behind my work. I understand that sometimes staying true to your vision can make it hard to keep your business going. I’ve seen other designers give up their dreams or take a different route when it gets rough. There’s no wrong path, really; the fashion world is big, and we need all kinds of creative minds. But when you keep at it, pouring your soul into your work even when others don’t understand it right away—well, that’s the real fight. If you stick with it, people will start to take your work seriously. Like Phoebe Philo, for example, I remember her talk at Central Saint Martins about how tough it is to balance work and family life. Hearing her talk about the challenges of being a woman trying to make it in her career and at home really made me think. Now that I’ve gotten a few more years under my belt and my own brand, I’m even more impressed by that kind of strength and the sacrifices they make. When things get hard for me, I draw strength from their example. You’ve got to have guts to say what you want to say, chase after what matters to you, and make things that touch people’s hearts. That’s what counts.
Supriya Lele
Miuccia Prada is an inspiration to me personally. I find it very interesting that she studied politics, and became a mime before going into fashion. I love that she’s always had this out of the ordinary way of interpreting the world, which has translated into being one of the most successful female fashion designers of our time. I love the sort of awkward, nuanced, quirky, sexy woman that has come through her Prada and Miu Miu. When I was a student, I would often look at nineties Prada references just because they were so effortlessly done and so pure in a way. I think she’s amazing.
