10 new humblebrag brands to add to your wardrobe this autumn
The shops are filling up with new-season trends, and with them the opportunity to turn up at the pub in the same floral dress as three other women. Shopping off the beaten track is no mean feat; after all, there’s a reason the beaten track is beaten – convenience. Whether it’s on the high street or via next-day delivery, our go-to brands tend to be visible and readily available. But the effort involved in hunting out a lesser-known label will feel worthwhile when your day is soundtracked by a chorus of ‘ooohs’.
Oh, how things have changed. The ultimate used to be It buys, especially handbags named after celebrities – Kelly, Jackie, Alexa – with waiting lists so long, you’d have more luck getting an audience with their namesakes. But the goalposts have moved. Rather than chasing the fleeting status of high-ticket pieces worn by influencers – where fads are made and broken in a day – smart shoppers look instead to the ‘explore’ tab, scrolling for the undiscovered brand, the unsaturated trend.
E-tailers such as Farfetch allow you to shop at a trendy Berlin boutique from the comfort of your sofa, while Matches Fashion, Net-A-Porter and Browns compete to be the first to stock the best labels you’ve never heard of. Instead of competing to buy the household names, we are competing to buy the names none of our friends have heard yet, so we can claim full bragging rights when they cotton on.
Even better, those rights have nothing to do with how much you spend: in fact, a bargain takes you into prime humblebragging territory. And since we’ve rounded up the brands that carry cachet now, there’s no extra effort required. Cue the ‘ooohs’...
1. Stine Goya
Dress, £544, Stine Goya
Not being able to try before I buy meant I wrote off Stine Goya as another label that looked good but might not deliver in the flesh. Until it arrived in Fenwick. The fit is flattering and the prints beautiful. I’m sorry I ever doubted you.
2. Nico Giani
From £225, Nico Giani
Italian designer Niccolò Giannini takes cues from 1950s and ’60s pieces – everything from armchairs to refrigerators – to create his sculptural bags. With a neutral, elegant colour palette that won’t date and prices from £255 (bang in the middle of that shopping sweet spot), job’s a good’un. nicogiani.com, matchesfashion.com, net-a-porter.com
3. Brøgger
Coat, £1,100, Brøgger
Launching in Harvey Nichols this season, this brand is a marriage of Scandinavian and British aesthetics thanks to its Danish-bred, London-based co-founders. Cue a classic trench coat that’s trimmed with ruffles, as well as understated silhouettes in eye-watering prints and colours.
4. Stutterheim
Mac, £300, Stutterheim
Finding a raincoat that neither makes you look like a toddler nor, well, like someone wearing a human-sized condom, is not easy. And chicer ‘fashion’ versions tend to be less than fully waterproof, which misses the point. Stockholm brand Stutterheim is all about functionality, but its Scandinavian sensibility means it can’t help but be stylish – hence collaborations with Marni and Garance Doré. So rather than buying a single-use pac-a-mac or another umbrella that you’ll lose within days, now might be the time to seriously consider a raincoat. Mac, £300, stutterheim.com
5. Miista
Boots, £265, Miista
Satin mules, patent flats, croc-embossed boots: here are shoes for women who really, really like shoes. But who also like walking/driving/not limping – not always a given in fabulous shoe design.
6. Ejing Zhang
Earrings, £205, Ejing Zhang
Royal College of Art graduate Zhang handcrafts her designs in London using resin and mixed media. It’s the earrings – part Calder mobile, part boiled sweet that you’re dying to put in your mouth – that really mark her out as a rising star of the jewellery world.
7. Etesian
Earrings, £80, Etesian
This jewellery label’s co-founders – a couple in real life – have lived all over the globe, but settled in Ciutadella, Menorca. There are elements of their travels in the designs, rendered in sterling silver and gold vermeil, and the Mediterranean lifestyle has seeped in, too: there’s a simplicity to the pieces that makes even the most sculptural easy to wear.
8. Sézane
Jumper, £80, skirt, £100, trainers, £90, bag, £260, all by Sézane
This Parisian brand (above) inspires so much loyalty among its customers that new collections sell out within days of arriving online. Why? It’s offering that French style – silk blouses, wrap dresses, great jeans – without the designer price tag. So far, the French have had an advantage: L’Appartement Sézane, the label’s shop in Paris where you can try and buy pieces, even when they’re sold out online. Its first UK store, at 233 Westbourne Grove, London W11, means that now we Brits will be able to get our hands on them as well.
9. Mehry Mu
Mehry Mu velvet bag, £415, Browns Fashion
Turkish designer Günes Mutlu has worked with straw and suede tassels in previous collections, but her latest designs show a coming of age – the shapes are sleek, the fabrics luxe and the colours rich. And, frankly, hooray for an evening bag that we can actually fit an iPhone 7 Plus into.
10. Orwell + Austen
Jumpers from £135, Orwell + Austen
If you’re going to wear a slogan, shouldn’t it be one you can stand behind? Je m’élève translates to ‘I rise’ – inspired by Maya Angelou’s poem Still I Rise – or if you prefer, try Orwell + Austen’s Semper femina knit (translation: ‘always women’). Coming soon is ‘True colours’, a collaboration with Does My Bum Look 40 In This? blogger Kat Farmer who, as the mother of a child with Asperger’s, is donating her cut to the National Autistic Society.
