Erin Wasson x RVCA (New York/Los Angeles)

The ultimate downtown girl, model Erin Wasson became Alexander Wang's muse after he discovered they lived in the same East Village apartment building. Since then, Wasson has expanded her brand to include LowLuv, a line of chain jewelry that appears to be a direct copy of Bliss Lau's innovative body jewelry line, and now Erin Wasson x RVCA, a womenswear collaboration with a skateboard line that proved to be the literal toast of the town when it launched with one of the few parties at New York Fashion Week earlier this month. Drawing on her Texas roots while mining Wang's bottomless well of '80s references, the line features fringe details, denim jeans and vests, and saloon-ready garter straps, all mixed with oversized T-shirts. Innovator or imitator, Wasson certainly has a talent for channeling a moment, and her line has already garnered rave reviews -- and an upcoming Paris showing thanks to Opening Ceremony.

Photos via Refinery29

Coming Soon (Tokyo)

Yohji Yamamoto's contributions to fashion have already been substantial: his own, avant-garde main line; Y's, a second line; Y-3, his sporty yet sophisticated Adidas collaboration; and more recently, his daughter, Limi Feu, whose line is a boxier, tomboyish take on Dad's fixations with black, Edwardian, and deconstruction. As if he weren't busy enough, his new under-the-radar label, Coming Soon, debuted this year with a 200-piece collection of utilitarian clothes and accessories, all marked by a discreet circle logo. Instead of a runway show, the line gets a 21st-century treatment: a grainy black-and-white YouTube video directed by Max Vadukul. Pieces include a black-and-white inside-out trenchcoat; boyfriend jeans; dropped-crotch "skirt-pants" (skants?); and button-downs with patchwork detailing.

Okley Run (London)

M.I.A. defies classification. International and interdisciplinary, the British-born singer, graphic designer, and visual artist, daughter of a Tamil freedom fighter, is known for her wildly patterned stage clothes almost as much as her pastiched, multiethnic, hip-hop-influenced music. Her colorful handmade clothes were at the vanguard of the current tribal trend espoused by influential designers from Balenciaga to Junya Watanabe to Oscar de la Renta, and a stint modeling for Marc by Marc Jacobs cemented her status as eccentric fashion icon. Just this fall, tiring of being copied by others, M.I.A. launched a small line of tribal-print clothes, called Okley Run, which she sells from her website in her typical do-it-yourself fashion. 

Via Nylon

C.Neeon (Berlin)

When they started their line in 2004, fabric designer Clara Leskovar and fashion designer Doreen Schulz were told they needed to make their designs more conventional, more feminine and sporty, if they were going to succeed. Luckily, they ignored that advice completely, creating a daring line of garishly colored, geometric-printed hoodies and loose, mostly knit separates that shows at London Fashion Week and is now selling in cities around the world, including New York, London, Copenhagen, and all across Japan. C.neeon's avalanche of honors includes the Hyères Grand Prix, participation in a slew of museum exhibitions, and collaborations with Topshop, Lumas Gallery, and a project with Nylon Japan. When they said the future would be bright, this must have been what they meant.

Majaco (Berlin)

Friends Meike Demski, Anna Franke and Janine Weber met as fashion design students at FHTW in Berlin, and after a year learning their trade in the fashion capitals of the world, they returned to Berlin to start their own line, Majaco, in 2004. The young, fashion-forward collections mix pieces that are knit and woven, tailored and draped, experimental and vintage-inspired, to create urban-chic looks that can adapt to the office, the gallery, or a night out on the town. Their Berlin flagship store opened in 2005.

Franzius (Berlin)

Stephanie Franzius apprenticed at Anne Klein and Viktor & Rolf before returning to her native Berlin to start her men's and women's line, Franzius. Modern yet traditional, loud and soft, classic with surprising tweaks, each collection is inspired by a strong female muse, from Françoise Hardy to Juliette Lewis and Tilda Swinton. Having caught fire in Berlin, the line is now sold as far afield as Tokyo and Moscow. 

Read more at Goethe-Institut and JC Report.

Photos via Franzius

Cheap Monday (Stockholm)

Once upon a time, in an age before premium denim, $65 jeans seemed unreasonably expensive. Then came Diesel and Seven and True Religion, who taught us that denim could be sexy, and that the more we paid for our jeans, the sexier we'd be. Sure enough, we got sexier and sexier, and our wallets got emptier and emptier, until some crazy Swedish people had the bizarre idea that a simple pair of skinny jeans could be cheap and chic. Those people were Cheap Monday. 

The brand started as an in-house line for Weekday, a Stockholm shop that had morphed from vintage boutique to high-end fashion emporium. Designer Örjan Andersson had the idea for cheap, fashionable jeans, and starting in 2005, the brand's skull-logo jeans spread like wildfire around the world. Weekday's latest venture is a dressier line called Kostym, a slightly more expensive brand featuring high-end detailing on Chinese-made slim, classic blazers, trousers, bomber jackets, and yes, jumper dresses that work equally well at the office or onstage at a rock show. What's next? A world takeover is most likely in the works: H&M has lately bought a 60% stake in the company.

Whyred (Stockholm)

So you want to start a Swedish fashion label. You'll need a big dose of the color black. High-waisted pencil skirts and trousers. Chunky black leather heels, or let's say wedges. Drapey tank tops. A mannish blazer. A jumpsuit and a girlish X-back jumper dress. Got all those? Congratulations: it's Whyred's spring collection! 

If designers Roland Hjort, Lena Patriksson, and Jonas Clason have Swedish fashion down to a formula, there's a reason for that -- the three met as colleagues at H&M. They launched their men's line in 1999 and the women's line the following year, and have since grown Whyred into a global brand complete with eyewear line, art collaborations, and sales in 230 stores around the world, including three stores of their own in Stockholm. 

Acne Jeans (Stockholm)

From its humble beginnings as a promotional piece for a Stockholm creative collective, the Acne Jeans line has grown by leaps and bounds, recently opening its first U.S. store in Soho as a collaboration with cult fave Opening Ceremony. Flattering is not the word to describe the terminally hip line, which now encompasses chicly clunky footwear, handbags, and defiantly dumpy mens- and womenswear in odd-textured fabrics, as well as the brand's signature skinny jeans, now in a plethora of colors and finishes -- Acne being one of the labels often named as spurring the current skinny jeans fad.