New brands to know and love this season: from Molly Goddard to Nicopanda

No Ka ’Oi

The increasing crossover between sports performance gear and ready-to-wear has its downsides – the coining of words such as “athleisure” for instance – but abominations aside, it also means that great brands such as No Ka’Oi are on the rise. Named after the Hawaiian for “excellence”, No Ka’Oi is an Italian label with the functional importance of yoga apparel at its heart, but with an added stylish spin.

Modern and graphic, the brand aims to cater for those who find yoga’s effects on physical and mental well-being appealing but don’t want to settle for boring or basic apparel for their practice. Looking good can certainly help with feeling good, so the spring/summer collection’s clean lines, interesting textures and bold colour palette will ensure it is put to plenty of use outside yoga studios and gyms.

Faustine Steinmetz

Forget everything you think you know about designer denim. Parisian-born, Central Saint Martins graduate Faustine Steinmetz has reinvented the material by turning an industrialised process on its head to create something truly precious. Her beautiful pieces are made entirely by hand in the UK: denim is hand-woven on huge looms, then hand-dyed and finished. A host of impressive international stockists coupled with Newgen sponsorship should ensure Steinmetz goes on to achieve great things.

Molly Goddard

Molly Goddard may have left her MA course at Central Saint Martins a year early, but she’s evidently no slacker. The west London native presented her debut collection during London Fashion Week in September, with an off-schedule teenage-party themed event in a Mayfair church hall where 20 of her best friends modelled partywear-inspired dresses to a karaoke soundtrack. Goddard’s first London stockist is Dover Street Market, which has also commissioned her to create an in-store installation – a ringing endorsement, if ever there was one.

Raey

Matchesfashion.com has long boasted a great edit of designer collections, but in-house label Freda has lost its spark along the way. So Rachael “Raey” Proud, formerly of Christopher Kane, was brought in to update the brand. Proud has come up trumps, with mix and match collections of elevated essentials in luxurious materials for men and women.

Cecilie Copenahgen

Necessity may not be the mother of all fashionable inventions, but when Cecilie Jorgensen found herself in a fix one night, she created a tunic from some worn scarves. Compliments flowed and the Danish design school student began to make tops for her friends. Jorgensen has gradually expanded her offering of easy-to-wear separates. Picked up by Browns this season, the first delivery sold out within a day.

Nicopanda

Nicola Formichetti, super-stylist and Lady Gaga collaborator turned artistic director of Diesel, is renowned for his playful, eclectic and ambitious approach to fashion. Now, the line he launched in 2011 as cartoon-covered merchandise has been transformed into a unisex fashion brand. A clever mix of avant-garde and accessible, there are ruffles and frills a-plenty in this kitsch collection.