Some of you may be eyeing a new winter coat or keeping tabs on the latest additions to the Shopbop sale, but if you’re interested in shopping female-founded or operated fashion brands, you’ve come to the right place.
Every day is a good day to support women doing the work, whether it’s with a post on Instagram, donating to female-led nonprofits, or shopping products from their businesses. So we rounded up the women-led fashion brands filling our carts right now. Some of them, like Universal Standard or Matteau, launched recently, out of a need to close a gap in the market; others, like Summersalt, used data and technology to engineer products that actually fit. Here are 15 women-run brands to keep on your radar—and what to buy from each.
All products featured on Glamour are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Do yourself a favor and take a few minutes today to hear this week’s episode of Glamour‘s “What I Wore When” podcast, during which Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Dorit Kemsley tell the downright wild story of an Alexander McQueen dress she impulse-bought in Las Vegas during her wedding weekend. The dress—red, tight, and “worth every penny”—has now become known as the “baby-making dress” for reasons we can all infer.
As a functioning Bravo-holic, I was particularly eager to chat with Dorit, who joined RHOBH show in 2016 and became a fan favorite thanks to her playful approach to style, her loyal family and, yep, her slightly ambiguous accent. She was fun, forthcoming and impressively self-aware during our hour together, and we covered a lot of ground including her rationale for buying buying clothes and shoes and bags well into the thousands of dollars, her lifestyle brand Beverly Beach, the Champion sweatshirts she loved as a teenager in Connecticut, how motherhood has impacted her style, and why Real Housewives always seems to look better and better every season.
Second to her baby-making dress story, I was especially intrigued by Dorit’s honesty about wanting to look good for her husband, and how dressing for him, in a lot of ways, is really dressing for herself. I think a lot of women would be afraid to admit that publicly—wanting to look great for a man—and I so appreciated her perspective.
Listen to the episode at the link above—you won’t regret it!
Follow host Perrie Samotin on Instagram @perriesamotin, guest Dorit Kemsley at @doritkemsley and subscribe to“What I Wore When”on Apple Podcasts or where ever you listen to your favorite shows.
The headlines out of 2019 were, in a word, wild. They’re the kind that you remember and can recall exactly where you were when you heard them first, they’re stories you’ll probably tell your grandchildren one day. And though there’s no comparing impeachment proceedings and climate strikes to runway shows, within fashion there’s been a number of moments that have earned worldwide attention this year and possibly, for better or worse, shifted the industry.
The one conclusion you can be sure of: The biggest fashion news of this past year is an indication of what to look out for 2020. For example, while Chanel continues to transition to a new era following the loss of Karl Lagerfeld, Rihanna (also known as the World’s Richest Female Musician) is less than a year into building her own fashion empire. Plus, the most glamorous style moments of 2019 proved that the red carpet is a place to challenge norms. And occasionally, the strongest political power flex doesn’t happen while wear a tailored suit, but rather a traditional thobe or moccasins. In the upcoming election year, expect plenty more examples of fashion-as-communication to emerge.
Ahead revisit 10 of the most memorable fashion headlines of 2019.
There’s nothing I love more than finding that perfect yet unique present to gift for birthdays, weddings, and anniversaries. So, suffice to say, the holiday season is one of my favorite times of year because I get to partake in this activity 20 or 30 times over. The minute those holiday lights are up on the street (ahem, pre-Thanksgiving these days), I start making my holiday gift giving lists for my family and friends—and checking it twice.
Drumming up those oh-so-special moments can, at times, be tricky but I tend to make a note on my iPhone with anything interesting I’ve seen in the past couple of months. This normally lengthy list helps to stop the endless internet searches in the wee hours for those perfect gifts. Here’s what I am gifting this holiday season, and hopefully it can help you check off some of the presents for loved ones on your list, too.
All products featured on Glamour are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Every single character on HBO’s Insecure is a joy to watch, but none quite as much, for me, as Tiffany DuBois. As one article put it, Tiffany “is the friend with more of her proverbial ‘shit’ together, and thinks that the petty drama that her friends deal with on a daily basis is a little beneath her. She’s annoying and pretentious, but she keeps her crew well-rounded.” She’s also obviously very funny, thanks to comedian Amanda Seales, who plays her.
I was looking forward to meeting Seales because I’m always curious about how the world’s busiest women dress—and she is definitely busy. In addition to shooting Insecure, the 38-year-old regularly performs stand-up, is the host of NBC’s Bring the Funny, has a weekly podcast, leverages her almost one million Instagram followers to educate on causes she feels strongly about, and lectures across college campuses. Now, Seales can add “author” to her list of jobs. Her book of essays and life advice, Small Doses: Potent Truths for Everyday Use, was released in October.
For our episode, Seales wanted to talk about what she wore when she first got onstage as a comic—silver and black sequined leggings and a plain top—and how that’s become her uniform while performing. The conversation around dressing as a female comedian is endlessly compelling to me—Seales says that when she was starting out, her goal was to avoid wearing anything she felt would start a conversation about the way she looked instead of her jokes. “I decided, you know what, I’m going to make the thing I wear leggings that are fun,” she says. “The theory being I want to be able to still show my shape because I like my shape and I feel like it’s a part of my version of femininity, but yet not wear something that I feel is going to be more of a conversation about aesthetics.”
The leggings she wears—often with elaborate prints like classic rap albums and ninjas riding unicorns—have become a signature, and Seales says that people regularly ask about where she gets them. “But they don’t know that this really just started as me trying to find a way to find a middle ground. I don’t know any guys that, before they go onstage, are thinking about, Do I wear the suit? Do I wear the zip-up hoodie? This polo collar might send the wrong idea.”
When I ask Seales where she gets her leggings, she is savvy: “I’m not going to say the site because they don’t pay me any money to say it.”
Seales and I also talk about fast fashion—she came in wearing a great acid green turtleneck from Zara and a puffy wrap coat from ASOS—but about luxury purchases too, including the neon pair of YSL stilettos she brought with her to our recording, the Rolex that she bought herself, which, she admits, she probably doesn’t really need, and the first pair of Gucci shoes she purchased when she realized she had income that could be considered disposable. We also discuss her mother’s cooking, having impressive vocabularies, and the concept of real friends in today’s debatably authentic Instagram age.
Nordstrom’s Cyber Monday sale is happening right this very second, and this year’s edition is full of deals you’re not going to want to miss.
Get super-marked-down winter boots and Nike shoes, home decor items just in time for the holidays, and beauty tools (ahem, T3 hairdryers, specifically) up to 50% off. Makeup is also discounted, with exclusive Too Faced sets and Malin+Goetz’s body wash discounted—so you can feel like you’re in the Caribbean, even if you’re braving the snow to head across town to an office holiday party.
If the retailer’s Black Friday sale didn’t tip you off, Nordstrom’s Cyber Monday sale is big. To keep you from scrolling endlessly, we picked the top deals you need to know about before they sell out. Credit cards at the ready…
All products featured on Glamour are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
