Ksenia Craven illustration/ Fashion Designer

Ksenia Craven Clients include: BVLGARI, Piaget, Dior, Louise Vuttion, and Bloomingdales

Instagram: @kseniacraven_illustration

Being in the fashion industry for more than 15 years I love watching how fashion changes..how every season one designer replaces another one and the same cycle keeps continuing over and over again.

Season by season..decade by decade ..century by century.. we see and feel a huge change in the fashion industry and fashion trends.

Today I would like to speak about the Top designers of the XXI century. In general I would say that 21 st century it’s a time when everyone thinks outside of the box, looks and expresses freedom of choice and living. Fashion of the 21st century has no boundaries and no control from the outside of the world.

Last few years made it even more obvious where we all had a very tough time for our society by being locked down due to Covid, I would call it the darkest night before the brightest morning. All of us were very limited in expression of ourselves and post Covid time definitely made us blooming and paying attention to our feelings and how we would like to be shown to this world. So this period made probably the biggest impact for the fashion industry and here we are…

YSL’s colour palettes to this day continue to capture the imagination of this trendsetter and rule-breaker, and she in turn wears h

er heart – in just those indelible shades – proudly on her sleeve.

YSL Beauty may have been a brand extension – of its compelling couture saga – that only formed long after the unfolding of its grand fashion story that began in 1961, with the founding of the Yves Saint Laurent house of fashion, and that was followed with the birth of iconic yet avant-garde fragrances such as Y in 1964, Saint Laurent Rive Gauche in 1971, and Opium in 1977, but it now a vibrant life force of its own.

In 1998, Israeli-American designer Alber Elbaz was drafted in from Guy Laroche to succeed Saint Laurent at ready-to-wear. His fresh breeze blew in feather-light chiffons, plume tops and sharp gold satin coats — but the short-lived stint was soon over. Gucci purchased the YSL brand in 1999 and Tom Ford took over, infusing the label with his signature sexy drawl.

Saint Laurent continued to design couture until that room of the house closed its doors in 2002.

Ford left to launch his own label in 2004.

Hedi Slimane – previously creative director of YSL menswear in the ’90s – arrived in 2012. His edgy, four-year tenure lifted the label’s rock’n’roll spirit, saw it rebranded — controversially — as Saint Laurent, and revived its couture. Anthony Vaccarello was handed the baton in 2016, and for autumn/winter 2017 mixed men’s and women’s clothing on the runway for the first time. “Everyone has a vision of what they think Saint Laurent should be and that’s something I knew when I started,” the designer told.

The three capital letters are a hot, charmingly elegant monogram pick nowadays.

Versace is the Italian luxury fashion brand started in 1978 by Gianni Versace. As one of the most storied labels, the company’s clothing and accessory lines for men and women are bold, edgy and stunning. This fashion powerhouse has created pieces for all the top celebrities, from movie stars to Rock n’ Roll artists. The Versace name was born as an audacious and unapologetic brand, fusing street style with high fashion to create bombastic, avant-garde designs. Versace is well known for mixing mediums such as metal, mesh and leather, often painted in bright, almost jarring colors. Versace designed throughout the 1980s and ’90s and built a fashion empire by producing ensembles that oozed sensuality and sexuality. His most famous designs included sophisticated bondage gear, polyvinyl chloride baby-doll dresses, and silver-mesh togas. Versace’s detractors considered his flashy designs vulgar. The Versace brand is known for its innovative designs having symbolic flashy prints and bright colors but with style and This one of the hottest designers which definitely fire up a fashion divas of the 21st century.

Off-White is an Italian luxury fashion label founded by American designer Virgil Abloh. The company was incorporated in Milan in 2012 and pretty new to the world but this name is the most popular among millennials.. The brand name itself has an echoing take – it is defined as the grey colour zone in between black and white. The creative is experimenting with getting a classic silhouette to a fresh direction, something that caters for the young millennial generation. The target audience for Off White is the millennials, and 59% of American millennials use Instagram often. It is no surprise that the Off White brand and the creator himself – Virgil Abloh, are very active on social media platforms

After he died in 1972, Balenciaga’s brand identity resurrected after its decline years after the founder’s death. The company became well-known again after Demna Gvasalia took over in 2015 as the creative director. Driven by visions and purpose, he created hype all over the brand. He pivoted the essence of the company, making it reach its highest point.

Footwear is essential for Balenciaga and the approach involves targeting the Millennials and the Gen Z’s. The company’s footwears are not cheap but not expensive either to capture almost every segment in the consumer market.

The company has designs on all manner of sneakers and footwear. It is so amazing to see them turn up, and the results have been consistent over time. Sneakers are big sellers and command high prices just for the designer name and logo that they carry. And now, the Balenciaga brand is a major player in the world of pricey sneakers. Step aside Air Jordan, Balenciaga is here to stay!

So, although Balenciaga is best known for an accessory called “the motorcycle bag”, could the brand end up being best known for expensive trendy sneakers in the years to come? Only time will tell.

This 101-year-old brand has witnessed a lot of transformation to date in history.

New Balenciaga era is the 21st century when the new Head of Design Department makes the decision to have such fantastic collaborations with Gucci, Crocs and the latest one is Adidas.

Gucci GUCCI is definitely #1 and one of the most recognizable fashion icons for the 21st century. Founded in 1921 , Gucci is an enticing reason for this is that Gucci has a comprehensive shirt production process, with a lot of work put into establishing the right measurements for different fits. They conduct significant research into finding the perfect width for the stomach, ribcage area, shoulders, etc., and these expenses go into the manufacture of a true luxury shirt worth what may seem like an incredulous price to people who don’t understand luxury. They also pay special attention to the little extra stitches added here and there so that everything is kept together. With tighter stitches difficult to do even with the most innovative sewing machine, there could be some hand sewing too, but all that work is what makes the difference between good shirts and great/ immaculate shirts.

The brand is not only known for the contribution it has made to the fashion industry but also how it associated fashion to break stereotypes/ boundaries to establish a brand aesthetic of its own. In 2015, the womenswear collection was redesigned to involve androgynous identity fashion into the mix which was another streak success of the brand. Gucci has been a luxury brand that has been able to launch consecutive successful collection by imparting a cohesive message within its advertisements, campaigns, collections and in-store experiences.

Technology never stops and Gucci has opened Florence-based call centres where Gucci’s finest shop assistants expertise are available to customers anywhere and at any time. In the wake of 2020, Gucci plans to open five more stores like the call-centre which promote the feeling of easy accessibility and inclusivity within Gucci customers. The brand wants its staff to form a personalised relationship with its customers (almost the same as the personal store assistant would) and to help grow customer engagement with the brand. Providing easy fashion consultation to its luxury consumers by localising the messages with respect to

every customer’s cultural sentiments (in different languages) and values will impart the correct brand messages to every part of the world seamlessly (accurate translation and transcreation of products).

Guccigram is the most recent crusade where Gucci also collaborates with visual artists around the globe. Within this crusade, a series of artworks inspired by Gucci’s house prints made by influencers or upcoming artists are submitted.