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What does it mean to be an American designer right now? That was the central question that Who What Wear Associate Features Editor Ana Escalante set out to explore in her piece “Invest In America: Meet the Political and Creative Forces Driving American Fashion‘s Evolution.” In diving into this topic, Escalante spoke with American designers and fashion experts from marginalized communities about their perspectives on the state of the fashion industry under the current administration. They shared their concerns about the current climate, what consumers can do to support independent and American brands, and ultimately, their hopes for the industry’s future.
For this episode of the Who What Wear podcast, Escalante sits down with Editorial Director Lauren Eggertsen to discuss everything she learned from these interviews while also sharing snippets of the conversations she had with industry heavy hitters, including Business of Fashion Senior Correspondent Sheena Butler-Young and designers Jackson Weiderhoeft, Sergio Hudson, and Allina Liu.
For excerpts from the conversation, scroll below.
Ana Escalante: You recently worked on an amazing piece for Who What Wear that went into our Spring Issue, which was called “Invest In America: Meet the Political and Creative Forces Driving American Fashion’s Evolution.” Can you walk me through a bit of the inspiration behind this piece and why you wanted to explore this topic, specifically?
Lauren Eggersten: When we think about the modern-day fashion industry from an American perspective, a lot of our gaze has often shifted to the designers of Europe and the luxury conglomerates who live in these massive corporations and these massive design houses that have so much history, but truly, there’s so much homegrown talent.
Of course, there are designers that we love and celebrate every day, but in the current retail, political, and economic state of the United States right now, it’s challenging to be an independent designer. Especially [one] who operates with most of your production or most of your operations inside the United States.
With this in mind, I really wanted to do a deep dive into some of the designers that we know and love, including some that are kind of newer on the scene to investigate the idea of what it means to be an American designer right now in this current moment, whether that was something that they felt aligned to politically, whether that was something that they thought was sustainable for their business practices, and just kind of the whole fashion ecosystem in the United States right now.
LE: I’m sure coming up with your dream list of people to reach out to was kind of difficult. I’m curious how it was that you came about the people that you reached out to, the brands that you reached out to?
AE: I think that so much of current American fashion is often led by immigrants, led by people of color, led by black designers, by queer designers, by female designers, groups and communities who often aren’t in the position of power to lead luxury conglomerates in Europe.
When I think about American fashion, I think it exists as this sort of subculture, counter culture movement, where a lot of the designs they make are really rooted in their identities.
For me, it was really important to reflect that in the talent and the designers that I want to speak to for this piece.
Everyone comes from a marginalized community in the United States right now.
Given that the interviews were conducted approximately a month after the presidential inauguration, it was something that loomed quite heavily on a lot of these designers’ minds and the people who would be most directly impacted by tariffs or by the fashion economy kind of crumbling.
Those are the people I want to speak to the most.
LE: I’m curious, having done all this research and having had all these conversations, what would you say are your big key takeaways from this interview?
AE: I think one of the biggest takeaways is that it feels so incredibly important to not only champion these designers on social media, but really one of the biggest things that they told me that they hope comes from this piece, was to just get people who can buy into their brand, who can buy from them directly, who can rally retailers to pay them on time. So many of them were speaking to me candidly about the idea that right now, to make it as an independent brand, it’s more financially hard than ever.
So sure, a follow and to like and a comment on social media is great, but it is really important to support these designers in your everyday life, something that you can tangibly put your dollars behind.
LE: On maybe a more personal note, I’m curious where you see your role as an American fashion editor fitting into all of this.
AE: During my interview with Alina [Liu], we actually chatted a little bit about the idea that, like, New York Fashion Week is dead. Or not necessarily that idea, but the whispers that perhaps America and New York as an industry and as a fashion city are not where we should be investing our money into.
It’s funny because, of course, New York Fashion Week is something that our team looks forward to all the time. And the CFDA has done a wonderful job of uplifting American designers, and I think they’ve taken really wonderful strides to do that over the last couple of years. But it is so expensive to show in New York. Some of these designers were breaking down the costs, [and we’re] talking anywhere from 30 to 40 to $50,000 just to put on a runway show that lasts for 15 minutes. Some of these brands don’t have the capital to do that. Most of these brands, you know, don’t even have the capital to sometimes produce samples in the United States.
So I do wonder what the chorus of “New York Fashion Week is dead, let’s go to Paris, let’s go to London instead,” says about our interest in American fashion and what we can do to continue to make New York Fashion Week, or just New York, in general, a much more equitable and accessible place for these young designers who have no other choice than to show here. Maybe it’s just keeping those brands and those voices top of mind to do our part and support them as well.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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