Fresh Looks: 5 Companies Catching Our Attention

by Amir Bakian

Les Fantome Palette

Inspired by human complexities and edgy, artistic design that makes for high-quality interchangeable pieces, Les Fantome Palette, which roughly translates to “The Ghost Palette,” is an art atelier concept that endorses the epitome of rebellious fashion. Created out of Los Angeles in summer 2021 by K. Nkansa, LFP quests for premium fabric, phantasmal designs, and street art as a priority to produce quality garments, with L.A. pop-up events that allow customers to meet and feed off collective inspiration. Their latest collection, Capsule 3.0, is an eccentric blend of haute couture and luxurious street style, continuing LFPs tradition of dark art and innovation, using vibrant colors to couple with changing moods. One piece of the collection is their Planter’s Jacket Emerald, a smooth, industrial design jacket made in Italy with floral marking and textured fine detailing, complete with button closure.Currently, they also have a showroom in Paris and feature collaboration with an art gallery in Venice, as well as also just won a fashion award for artist of the year in Tokyo. To keep pace with their valuable customers; demands, their collections include high-quality printed products with intense detail on 100% cotton fabric, with artwork on shirts, sweatshirts, and tees intended to capture the energy of dark metal fashion and youthful imaginative ideas.

NMB New York

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While attending the Parsons School of Design, Natalie Brown learned that the fashion industry generates 92million tons of waste annually and that clothing can take up to 30-40 years to decompose.This information inspired her to make her own clothing brand, NMB NewYork, that is based on upcycling and individuality/empowerment in clothing. NMB strives to elevate the idea of upcycling and give it a high-end edge and loud streetwear feel that is competitive with luxury brands. One of their mottos is “Look Good, Feel Good, Do Good,” so all of their pieces are made to catch the eye, be very comfortable and make the world a fashionably cleaner place. For each piece, they hand select clothing from a variety of shops around the country, deconstruct them, and turn them into entirely new pieces. This process is individualized for each piece, such as one Upcycled Reversible T-shirt Puffer Jacket taking up to several weeks to make. Quite a few celebrities wear NMB, like Ashley Benson, who played Hanna Marin in “Pretty Little Liars,” recently wearing the reversible puffer jacket.

 

Sand Viper

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Sand and shoes don’t mix well. David Leib knew that all too well as a collegiate football player who often trained in sand and on beaches where his regular pair of sneakers would be filled with clumps of sand by the end. He was amazed that no brand had made a shoe specifically designed for sand use, although he later realized that it was a niche market and probably not lucrative enough for them to allocate resources to. So in 2015 he founded Sandviper, an athletic footwear and apparel company with a vision to not only make a niche sand training shoe but an entire athletic-wear brand around the niche product that would differentiate them from their competition. One such product is the Sandspeed 2.0s made with perforated neoprene for breathability, a TPU weld at the base for lateral stability and a nylon adjustable strap for added support. During the NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals between the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics, this shoe was worn by their ambassador and Heat announcer Dale McLean. Recently, they also launched their Vipercleats, a line of football cleats that have been worn by local football players in South Florida with player feedback being extremely positive. Their sports partnerships do not end there however, as Sandviper has now delivered the first ever factory-made custom cleat for a 7on7 team, the Florida Fire, a 4-time national champion.

Ooh La Luxe

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A lot of children have lemonade shops, but twin sisters Michelle and Cristina Wilson took it quite a few steps further. Growing up in their dad’s motorcycle shop, they saw entrepreneurship every day from a young age, inspiring them to make a little tea shop and sell bread to neighbors. At Sonoma State University, they started a coffee drive-thru that helped put them through school. In 2008, the two teamed up again to found Ooh La Luxe, a women’s clothing boutique in Sonoma County that offers a range of clothes, shoes and accessories, as well as free styling appointments at each of the three locations. The two sisters hand select their products, as well as design their own in-house line, and strive to make Ooh La Luxe not just a brand, but a lifestyle. One of their recent collections, Luxe Fall, features many sleek bodysuits, comfortable tank-tops and casual joggers. They’ve taken their entrepreneurship to social media as well, with their Instagram having near 300k followers and a celebrity following. The Wilson’s have also won North Bay Business Journal 30 under 30, Best Boutique of Sonoma County and were featured on Maxim’s “Exploring 5 Companies Making Huge Strides Within Their Industry”.

 

The Olu Brand

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The Olu Brand is a lifestyle brand that seeks to inspire, guide, and motivate people, with the goal of their products contributing to the definition of consumer’s way of life. Standing for Original Lifestyle University, Olu sells minimalist streetwear and is located at 55 West Church Street, Unit 206N, in Orlando. Most of their products feature one solid color with “Olu,” “The Olu Brand” and “Original Lifestyle University” emblazoned on it. This creates a very sleek and direct style of their products, such as their Olu Lifestyle Sweatshorts that come in three different colors and feature “Olu” on the lower left leg. The brand also has the Olu Lifestyle University Denim Jacket, a rugged and tough dark denim jacket. One of their newer products featured in the Series 4 collection is the tennis club t-shirt, with two big rackets on the back with the phrase “Tennis Club Olu” beneath. Olu is branching out of clothing as well with their Lifestyle Electric Scooter Prototype debuting in select stores in Miami in July and August alongside Series 5 being unveiled 9.30.22, which will consist of designs that give a modern, but vintage feel.

Presented by: Ascend Agency

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