Summer fashion is here, and the streets of New York are filled with hot-weather fashion trends spanning beachy jewelry, jelly shoes and market totes to ’90s baggy shorts and girly dresses. At the forefront of the scene is personal style rooted in vintage influence and novelty.
Three notable fashion brands — Ossou, Made Some Sportswear and Emily Dawn Long — are tapping into this ethos, whipping up new takes on quintessential summer wardrobing ranging from reworked, elevated denim to ultra-cool surf board shorts to novelty handmade knits.
Here, WWD spotlights the three fashion labels to know and shop this summer.
Made Some Sportswear
A look from Made Some Sportswear.
Courtesy of Made Some Sportswear
Founded in 2020 by Los Angeles-based creative director Madelyn Somers, Made Some Sportswear is an emerging sportswear brand designed to meld vintage novelty and vacation travel style.
“I’ve always been really entrepreneurial, and I’ve always had like a side thing because I love working with other people and collaborating,” Somers, who has worked with the likes of Emma Chamberlain’s Chamberlain Coffee, Google, Staud and more as a creative director, said of founding her own fashion brand. “I’m someone who needs to be creative and I have so many outlets, whether it’s photography, interior design or art. This feels like an extension of myself.”
Somers, an avid traveler, told WWD she initially started the brand with souvenir-inspired T-shirts and key chains. “Things that you would find at the base of a monument or at a kiosk,” she said of her adorable vintage-looking graphic baby T-shirts. “I was always inspired by ’70s vacation style.”
A look from Made Some Sportswear.
Courtesy of Made Some Sportswear
Since then, the creative director has expanded the line into ultra cool beach-to-street board shorts, which have been recently spotted on influencers and fashionistas of Substack, including Leandra Medine, Reese Blustein and Laurel Pantin. The nostalgia-tinged line also riffs on ’90s surf style, as seen through two-tone cotton rib tank tops and unisex 100 percent cotton, garment-dyed Sportswear T-shirts (each style celebrates various global countries with sporty vintage graphics) alongside a debut pair of pants which serve as an extended version of her popular waterproof nylon Short Shorts.
“I always say that I’m in slow fashion,” Somers said, noting each style is made in Los Angeles, with materials sourced in Japan. Currently, the brand offers tight, curated drops with a hot weather focus for spring and summer; denim, swim and fashion collaborations are also currently in the works.
Beyond its direct-to-consumer e-commerce, the brand is also available at the Austin-based ByGeorge boutique, Cincinatti-based The Most Beautiful Thing in the World Is boutique, Lisa Says Gah and L.A.-based Coast by Coast shop, with prices ranging from $6 for tourist-inspired keychains up to $275.
Emily Dawn Long
A look from Emily Dawn Long.
Courtesy of Emily Dawn Long
Launched in 2019, Emily Dawn Long’s epynomous label instantly became a cult fashion brand for her vegetable-dyed, tie-dye styles and 100 percent cotton hand-crocheted “A Hat Named Wanda” hats famously worn by Kendrick Lamar.
During a recent visit to her studio, Dawn Long told WWD she initially found the brand with the intention of designing for herself and friends. This ethos has pushed the artist to expand her line over the years into hair accessories, additional hats, jewelry, belts, home furnishings and fully fledged men’s and women’s ready-to-wear.
Highlights of her debut fall rtw collection include a variety of 100 percent cotton tailored yet boxy button-down Jeff shirts, named after her father; “Take Off Your Clothes” reversible one-of-a-kind screen-printed vintage T-shirts; slinky backless viscose knit tank tops and stellar drop-column dresses, and a strong variety of knit layers.
Dawn Long also mixes in novelty and sensuality throughout the lineup, as in her series of River tops, skirts and awl with cheeky slit details; a Peruvian merino wool and baby alpaca hand-knit cable knit sweater featuring interlocking swans, or matching retro striped linen and silk sets. There’s even a cheeky “Chastity Belt” hand-beaded trompe-l’oeil skirt, inspired by the ’93 camp film classic, Robin Hood Men in Tights, currently available on her e-commerce.
A look from Emily Dawn Long.
Courtesy of Emily Dawn Long
The designer said her business is 90 percent direct-to-consumer, rooted in her loyal repeating customers and strong community, with her new fall collection currently available for purchase and select styles for summer-delivery preorder. She also wholesales to the likes of Cafe Forgot, Carmen Amsterdam and has five stockists in Japan including Ships and Super A Market.
This month, Dawn Long also opened the doors of her Lower East Side studio and turned it into a by-appointment “mini store,” she said. “Customers can come in and shop while I work on new pieces. It’s a way for them to explore my brain; I really love speaking and talking to everyone, and learning,” she said, adding that by opening her own retail-esque space, she’s able to expand the business beyond online. It’s a piece of the puzzle her brand has been missing, and serves as a go-to New York City shop this summer for thoughtful, vintage-inspired, everyday wardrobing.
“Lately I feel like people are missing the point. My pieces are thoughtful and made with purpose,” she said, noting that it’s not necessarily about making money, but making new pieces for “my people,” she said. “Also I move really fast when I want to do something, so I’m constantly making new stuff; I can’t put it all online and continue to make new things. That kinda stops my flow, so thats why I’m welcoming people into my brain — it’s a studio. It’s a store. It’s a showroom. It’s a hangout space.”
Ossou
A look from Ossou.
Fujio Emura/Courtesy of OSSOU
There’s a hot new denim-based brand on the market. Launched this month by Fforme founder Nina Khosla and Erede founder Talia Shuvalov, Ossou is the new women’s rtw brand aiming to, “elevate the foundation of a modern wardrobe,” the duo told WWD.
“We started thinking about the collection about almost two years ago. We started brainstorming this idea of building a ready-to-wear brand in the American space that had a luxury focus, was elevated, but really with a material focus that would be something that is durable, would endure and have longevity,” Khosla and Shulavov explained, noting the brand name comes from the word bone. “What we fell in love with was expanding the denim wardrobe through color and rich texture.”
The duo’s debut collection includes a strong selection of made in Los Angeles, elevated Japanese yarn-dyed denim styles in an array of earth tones like Clay, Mojave, Loam alongside sophisticated blue washes. The line currently features twisted, Western landscape-inspired takes on classic silhouettes across jackets and jeans with sleek hardware details (made in collaboration with industrial designer David Caon), which are currently available on the brand’s e-commerce. Prices range from $395 to $1,295.
A look from Ossou.
Fujio Emura/Courtesy of OSSOU
“In the most obvious form like to us, you think about denim and knitwear,” Shulavov said about expanding into knitwear and shirting in the fall, when the brand also plans to introduce wholesale. “When we thought about both shirting and knitwear, we had to elevate those pieces and make them feel like quite luxury and polished in the same way we were approaching the denim. All of our fits are ready-to-wear focused — it’s tailored denim but with everyday wearability.”
She added that the Ossou customer is someone who’s “considered, values longevity and durability but also wants to feel really polished and put together, but can also be undone at the same time.”
From chic trucker jackets that cinch in at the waist to elevated high-rise, straight-leg jeans the brand is providing a new proposition in the denim and luxury markets with intriguing “bones of the wardrobe,” they said, to wear throughout the summer and beyond.
