The Tamesis
One year after the Los Angeles fires ravaged the city, Vogue Business takes stock of the fashion industry’s recovery and rebuilding efforts in its Reimagining Los Angeles series, assessing where the city’s fashion and apparel industry is headed in 2026.
Despite what some may think, Los Angeles has long had a thriving fashion and beauty industry. Luxury brands established in the city include Chrome Hearts, Amiri, James Perse and Dôen. These native Los Angeles mainstays have grown and operated beyond the city limits.
Now, a new crop of brands are finding success in Los Angeles, and international brands are realizing the city’s potential as an entry point into the United States, rather than a secondary option to New York.
London-based Kiko Kostadinov, Manchester’s Represent and Chinese sportswear brand Anta have all opened stores in Los Angeles – the first two opening in 2024; the latter in 2025 – before opening stores in New York or elsewhere in the United States. These brands recognize an appeal that L.A. founders have long capitalized on but have crystallized in the past few years: The L.A. lifestyle, and the focus on community that goes with it, is ripe for building a fashion or beauty brand.
“There’s been a really interesting shift in Los Angeles,” said Sahar Rohani, who co-founded replenishable beauty brand Soshe Beauty in 2019 as part of a USC program and grew the brand in 2022 under Credo Beauty’s Credo for Change accelerator program. “A few years ago, campaigns were primarily about launching specific products within the same circle of influencers. Now, brands are leaning into the fact that everyone in Los Angeles—whether they mean to or not—is an influencer in their own world.”
Nina Garduno, who founded Los Angeles basics brand Free City in 2001 and served as chief menswear buyer for Ron Herman and Fred Segal, is optimistic about the next generation. Garduno highlighted Madhappy, with whom she works through Free City, as one of the most promising brands. “This is the next generation,” she said of the brand. “They’re old enough now to work in Los Angeles and get creative experience. It’s a true story of seeing a generation grow up and take over.”
By 2026, the Los Angeles founders hope to up the ante and develop more physical touchpoints in a city where people are keen to get out and spend time with brands. At this moment, direct-to-consumer (DTC) is more direct than ever. What Los Angeles lacks in the hustle and bustle of New York, it makes up for in consumers’ willingness to invest time (and they tend to have more free time than consumers in busy cities) and money into brands they identify with. It’s a different culture of hustle, the founders agreed.
lifestyle
Los Angeles wasn’t necessarily where Kiko Kostadinov, who designs menswear for her namesake label, and womenswear designers Laura Fanning and Deanna Fanning planned to open their first U.S. stores. Kostadinov said it was not something overly strategic but a matter of chance. The store is located in the Melrose Hills Gallery District, adjacent to the Morán Morán Gallery, which has a long-standing relationship with the brand, and Jenny Le, now the brand’s head of North American retail, is already based in the city. Representatives followed a similar path. The team wanted to open a second store in their hometown of Manchester, England (the first was in London), but couldn’t find a suitable unit. In Los Angeles, they found the perfect space in West Hollywood, near companies like Jacquemus and Chrome Hearts. (A third store opened in Manchester later that year.)
