Meet the Emerging Designers Shaping Fashion’s Tomorrow

This story is a complementary profile to the 2025 Hypebeast100, our annual recognition of the creatives shaping fashion and culture today. Explore the full Hypebeast100 list, award winners, and this year’s Next class of emerging designers here.

The Hypebeast100 Next is our annual look at where fashion is heading, not through trend cycles, but through the designers actively reshaping how clothes are made, worn, and understood right now. This year’s class of 25 emerging designers was selected for the clarity of their point of view, the intention behind their craftsmanship, and the communities and cultures they’re building alongside their work.

What connects this class isn’t a single aesthetic, but a shared belief in purpose. Across tailoring, sportswear, couture, craft, and performance, these designers are thinking deeply about material, memory, movement, and meaning. Many resist loud gestures in favor of nuance. Others embrace strangeness, emotion, or ritual. Together, they reflect a shift away from spectacle and toward substance, clothing that reveals itself over time through wear, context and lived experience.

We asked each designer from this year’s Hypebeast100 Next class the same questions about design language, signature pieces, and what they hope people feel beyond first impressions. What follows is a collective snapshot of how the future of fashion is being built right now.

How would you describe the design language of your brand, and what core principles shape it?

Kiichiro Asakawa (ssstein)
“The core of our brand lies in a sense of serene and dignified beauty. It is also closely tied to an expression that is quiet, yet carries a certain strength — not in an aggressive sense, but in an inner, composed way. The image is similar to the sound of a piano or a violin resonating in a completely silent space.”

Luis Dobbelgarten (No/Faith Studios)
“My design language has evolved a lot over the years. When I first started the brand, everything was loud. As I grew and gained a deeper understanding of the garments I work with, the aesthetic matured. You can still find those signature details today, but in a more refined and wearable way.”

Frederik Berner Kühl (Berner Kühl)
“Berner Kühl is built on a language of quiet precision. Clothes that do not ask for attention but reveal their intent through fabric, proportion, and construction.”

Kimintē Kimhēkim (KIMHĒKIM)
“The design language of KIMHĒKIM is rooted in self-love and harmony between one’s inner and outer self. It comes from the dialogue between my Korean roots and French couture.”

Chae Min Lim and Gyu Seok Yoon (EGNARTS)
“Our design language comes from strange familiarity. Pieces feel approachable at first, then reveal subtle strangeness through shifts in structure or function.”

Di Du (DIDU)
“My design language is built around the tension between vulnerability and strength, using silhouettes and materials to provoke emotion before logic.”

Gabriele Casaccia (Mental Athletic)
“Mental Athletic was born from the desire to decode the language of sport through a contemporary, irreverent lens. We see sport not just as performance, but as a way of living.”

Sage Toda-Nation (SAGE NATION)
“Sage as a brand is centred around purpose, perspective, and balance. With roots between the UK and Japan, we offer our take on sartorial staples for the modern wardrobe.”

Ryo Miyoshi (everyone)
“A quiet and calm design approach born from the atmosphere of everyday life. At the core, I design from my own environment. The spaces I build, the furniture, the sound, the light — everything shapes the clothing, and the garments become an extension of that world.”

If you had to select one item that best represents your design language, which piece would it be?

Yuki Yagi (vowels)
“Our Silk Scarf Shirt. It is cut from silk twill scarves woven on a shuttle loom, with prints aligned by hand and finished using tematsuri hand-rolled hems.”

Oscar Ouyang
“The sheep fair isle jumper. From the Irish Donegal merino wool to the colour combinations and cropped fit, there is a lot to say within one piece.”

Arnar Már Jónsson and Luke Stevens (RANRA)
“The Kalt shoe. Its wool upper is natural, breathable, and thermoregulating, designed for cold, wet environments without feeling overbuilt.”

Jeong Li (JEONGLI)
“The SEAL Coat. It is lightweight, packable, and made from Italian micro ripstop, with bonded pockets and laser-cut finishing.”

Ken Rao (Professor E)
“The 0222 Double Breasted Blazer. Made from Japanese ramie linen, dyed with plants, and finished with hand distressing and repair.”

Camiel Fortgens (Camiel Fortgens)
“Our waxed cotton outdoor jacket. We recreated an iconic garment quickly, almost like sculpting with fabric.”

Hayate Ichimori and Jun Kikuta (Omar Afridi)
“There isn’t a single piece that defines our design language. It comes from the practice as a whole, with identity found in nuance rather than a signature item.”

Daquisiline Gomis (JAH JAH Studio)
“The object that best represents our identity is the sound system. Its pyramidal structure evokes a temple, a church, or a totem — a sacred cultural form. The materials we use — raw wood, grey metal, electrical cabling — reflect a technical approach that blends craftsmanship with modern energy. The sound system feels like a rocket for the spirit: an object built to transmit vibration, movement, and elevation. This embodies exactly what we aim to express through our creations.”

When someone experiences your work, what do you hope they understand about your craftsmanship that isn’t immediately visible?

Luis Dobbelgarten (No/Faith Studios)
“A look alone will not make you fall in love with a garment. We put meaning into small details that reference where we come from.”

Kimintē Kimhēkim (KIMHĒKIM)
“I hope people feel confidence the moment they put it on. That comes from hidden finishes and subtle codes.”

Yuki Yagi (vowels)
“The craft is intentional, not decorative. The difference should be felt gradually as the piece lives with the wearer.”

Junhyung Seo (KHAKIS)
“We design for someone who loves clothing for how it grows more personal over time. We want it to become what you reach for every day.”

Patrick Stangbye (Portal)
“We hope the product is understood as a tool, answering real needs and supporting movement.”

Ryo Miyoshi (everyone)
“I want people to feel a subtle but undeniable quality through daily life.”

Andreas Steiner (RIER)
“The body reacts instinctively to natural fabrics. Comfort becomes a form of symbiosis.”

Kosuke Sueno (Jian Ye)
“A garment is only completed once the wearer’s life starts to affect it. I would rather see it worn roughly than kept perfect.”

Marq Rise (GALILEE)
“Craftsmanship is deeply connected to memory and experience. It needs time to be proven, and it should still be speaking years later.”

Xiang Gao (Penultimate)
“My way isn’t normal, traditional, or classic. It’s often strange and confusing, requires care, and is difficult to wash. But I hope people can feel as happy as I do and enjoy the clothes as much as I enjoy making them.”