From couples to family members to best friends, here are 11 designer duos in fashion
In the 1960s, Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé started a love story that lasted for decades. Fashion masters pursue their own individuality, but there are also many designers in the fashion field who are famous for their partnerships. They accompany and inspire each other with the close relationship of husband and wife, family or old friends to create brand legends.
Text by KE WU
Adrian Joffe & Rei Kawakubo
Adrian Joffe and Rei Kawakubo are known as the most "respectful" couple in the fashion world. In 1987, Adrian Joffe joined Comme des Garçons as commercial director and moved to Paris. In 1991, he and Rei Kawakubo fell in love and began dating officially. The following year, the two entered the marriage palace. No matter who you look at, the way these two get along is not the category of glue and paint - one of them is a businessman with a business mind, and the other is a talented and avant-garde designer. After they got married, they still maintained the model of living separately, Adrian Joffe in Paris and Rei Kawakubo in Tokyo. On their 24th wedding anniversary, Adrian sent an email to Kawakubo, and she simply replied with a “thank you.” They understand and respect each other, and this couple’s life is plain and real.
In addition to design, Adrian Joffe is responsible for all business of the company. In early 2000, Kawakubo and her husband Adrian Joffee opened the Dover Street Market concept store and it was a great success, which also allowed everyone to see the tacit cooperation and cooperation of this couple. Kawakubo's aesthetic system and gender-free design have a revolutionary impact on the industry, and her husband who protects her is also a firm cornerstone on her way forward.
Christophe Lemaire & Sarah-Linh Tran
Another regrettable couple is the Lemaire designer duo, Christophe Lemaire and Sarah-Linh Tran. Christophe Lemaire founded the eponymous brand Lemaire in Paris in 1991. Perhaps influenced by his professional experience in industrial design and interior design, Christophe still insisted on the practicality and functionality of the brand at that time. Sarah-Linh Tran, who is of Vietnamese and French descent and lives in New York, has a rich background in humanities, which gives her a unique lightness and romance. They met one night in Paris and fell in love at first sight. Although Sarah-Linh Tran had no professional background in fashion design, her views on fashion, attitude towards dressing and good temperament were immediately in line with Christophe's. As the creative director of Hermes, Christophe picked up Lemaire again, which was on the verge of bankruptcy.
In 2010, Sarah-Linh joined Lemaire as co-artistic director. If Christophe's Lemaire is a stable and solid foundation, then Sarah-Linh is like the drizzle and breeze blowing on this land. Her joining has added more oriental poetry and romantic fantasy of daily life to this designer brand, and also opened up a new life for Lemaire. After Sarah-Linh Tran joined, Lemaire also began to contact more art-related collaborations, such as the hand-painted prints full of Zen and agricultural culture by Mexican painter Martín Ramírez; the mysterious forest totems by Indonesian artist Noviadi Angkasapura; and the landscape paintings by African artist Joseph Yoakum. When everyone thought that this couple would spend their lives together, they broke up in the 15th year of their love and became business partners from lovers.
Rick Owens & Michèle Lamy
During the economic downturn, it has become increasingly difficult for independent brands to operate, but this difficulty has not affected Rick Owens. Rick Owens is jointly operated by the designer Rick Owens, his wife Michèle Lamy, and partners Elsa Lanzo and Luca Ruggieri. This independent designer studio started on Hollywood Boulevard and has gradually grown into a brand with an annual turnover of over 100 million euros with its dark and sharp personality and appropriate market positioning.
Rick Owens once said in an interview about his wife: "Her natural charm nourishes me. As long as she supports it, I am willing to bet everything I have on it." In the minds of many people, the story of Rick Owens and his wife Michèle Lamy has both punk recklessness and emotional and spiritual redemption. After graduating, Rick Owens worked as a pattern maker and was like a walking corpse. His boyfriend at the time introduced Rick to Lamy's self-created clothing brand. Rick, who was in his 20s, was immediately attracted to Lamy, who was in her 40s. In 1994, with Lamy's encouragement, Rick established his own brand Rick Owens, and he gradually changed his originally decadent life. Michèle Lamy is Rick Owens’ wife, collaborator, business partner, and muse. She is a true eccentric who always wears rough makeup and whose golden teeth can be seen when she speaks. Her image as a dark priestess is consistent with the brand’s unconventional image.
Lucie & Luke Meier
Unlike Rick Owens' avant-garde and rebellious love, the story of Lucie and Luke Meier, the current Jil Sander designer duo, is more peaceful and stable. They met at the Polimoda Fashion School in Florence, Italy in 2000. At that time, Luke focused on design and Lucie studied fashion marketing. The two students lived in the same student apartment. In the simple years, love gradually grew. Luke's way of talking about things deeply attracted Lucie and took Lucie into his world.
"I hadn't been to the United States at that time. Luke was different from everyone I knew before. The music, culture and other things sounded fresh and exciting to me." Lucie once described her first acquaintance with Luke in an interview with the media. In 2007, the two got married. On one side, Luke founded the streetwear brand OAMC, while on the other side, Lucie worked as a designer at Louis Vuitton, Balenciaga and Dior. After accumulating experience in different directions, in 2017, Lucie and Luke Meier took over Jil Sander, which had experienced a number of creative directors, and served as co-creative directors, and began to take charge of one of the most popular brands in Europe. Since Lucie & Luke Meier joined, they have injected gentle yet powerful energy into the design, incorporating cobweb-shaped silhouettes, technical fabrics, rich decorative elements and messy wool into Jil Sander's original modern sculpture-like shape. While maintaining the brand's original minimalist style, they have given the clothing more obvious luxurious details, making romance, poetry, sentiment and texture the keywords to describe Jil Sander today.
Rolf Snoeren & Viktor Horsting
The general impression is that designer duos usually complement each other. If one is imaginative, the other will be more pragmatic and commercial. So what if both are radical and creative? The Dutch duo Rolf Snoeren and Viktor Horsting are known as "fashion artists" in the fashion circle. Since they founded the high-end custom brand Viktor & Rolf in 1993, they have taken the lead in the circle with surreal contrasts and provocative spirit, presenting iconic series at Paris Fashion Week for more than 30 years.
"We think that high-end fashion is like a laboratory, and each series presents a series of unique technical challenges." As a high-end custom brand, Viktor & Rolf does not focus on traditional clothing crafts such as embroidery and lace, but instead integrates performances, installations and other art forms with avant-garde concepts. Even their fashion sensation first took place in galleries. In their hands, fashion is more like a tool for speaking out, speaking for art and for social phenomena. For example, in May 1995, the duo exhibited a series called "L'apparence du vide" (The Empty Appearance) at Galerie Patricia Dorfmann in Paris, using golden fabrics similar to candy wrappers to create fashion, with a long list of popular models playing in the background, intended to satirize the supermodel craze of the 1990s; in 1999, Viktor & Rolf brought the Russian Doll series that shocked the fashion world, using layers of gorgeous brocade robes to satirize the cycle of fashion and consumption; and in the 2015 autumn and winter fashion show, paintings hung on the wall were turned into clothes on models, exploring the relationship between wearable art and decorative art.
Mary-Kate Olsen & Ashley Olsen
The Row is one of the most famous brands in the fashion world in recent years. Founded in 2006, the American brand has established a distinctive brand image among fashion lovers with high-quality fabrics, minimalist aesthetics and high prices. After Phoebe Philo left Celine and pragmatism became popular, The Row took advantage of the trend and took over some of the minimalist consumers who pursue quality. In 2024, it received investment from Chanel owner Wertheimer family and L'Oréal heir Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, with a transaction valuation of up to 1 billion US dollars. The founders of The Row, the Olsen sisters (Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen), are the driving force behind the creation of this popular brand. This pair of twin designers have been active in front of the screen since their childhood, and now they are leading The Row to go further in a low-key and independent manner.
The Olsen sisters have almost never accepted any media interviews, and have not collaborated with any brands. While other brands are choosing to use social platforms to build momentum for them, the Olsen sisters are doing the opposite. You can't find the sisters' accounts on social media, and even The Row's official Instagram is not updated frequently. During the Paris Fashion Week in March last year, The Row explicitly prohibited all viewers from taking any photos during the fashion show, but gave viewers a notebook to record their thoughts. This move immediately sparked heated discussions on the Internet, making the brand, which had no new products exposed, still the most popular brand of the season. The marketing method of refusing marketing has become the most eye-catching detonation point. The mysterious marketing rules are matched with exquisite clothing details. The exquisite materials and recognisable styles are aimed at the elite female group. This "secret club" strategy has allowed The Row to capture the hearts of countless fashion lovers.
Sebastien Meyer & Arnaud Vaillant
Coperni was co-founded by Sebastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant in 2013. Like many partner collaborations, Sebastien and Arnaud play complementary roles in the brand - Sebastien focuses on fashion design and pattern making, while Arnaud specializes in fashion business and management. The two first met at the Paris Fashion School, and Arnaud later worked for Balenciaga and Chanel. After completing several design projects with Sebastien, Arnaud and Sebastien were appointed creative directors of the French brand Courrèges in 2015. Three years later, they chose to leave the brand and relaunched Coperni in 2018.
Under the development of Sebastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant, Coperni not only has exquisite and avant-garde designs, but is also very good at cross-field collaborations. In the 2023 spring and summer fashion show, Bella Hadid wore a dress made of white spray and bowed with the two designers of Coperni. Overnight, Coperni gained more than 300,000 new followers and had a huge market response. After that, Coperni often went viral on social media through unexpected collaborations: for example, it collaborated with fashion school Les Arts Decoratifs to create a fully reflective dress; it collaborated with Boston Electric to turn robots into spectators; and for the latest 2025 Spring/Summer collection, Coperni collaborated with Disneyland Paris to inject classic animation elements into Coperni's design genes. Kylie Jenner, who was in the lead role, pushed the dreamy atmosphere of the press conference to a climax, and the concept of cooperative symbiosis also penetrated into the core of the brand.
Jack McCollough & Lazaro Hernandez
Another same-sex couple designer from New York is Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, who announced in January that they would leave the brand Proenza Schouler at the end of January. After graduating from Parsons School of Design, they successfully sold their graduation works to Barneys New York, took their mother's family name to form the brand name Proenza Schouler, and began their journey to bring European aesthetics into the New York fashion world.
After the brand was established, the two used clever irregular tailoring to create a simple urban style. Subsequently, Proenza Schouler won five CFDA awards in 2007, 2011 and 2013. After accompanying the brand for 23 years, the two announced that they would officially leave Proenza Schouler this year. Although they no longer lead the brand's design direction, they will still serve as shareholders and board members in Proenza Schouler. Perhaps it was their consistent adventurous spirit and growing artistic pursuits that made them decide to make a change: "Those years were filled with novelty and excitement, and also marked many personal milestones, including opening our first retail store and winning our first CFDA award. As the brand continued to grow, we learned what it takes to run a real business. Proenza Schouler has grown from an experimental student project to the company it is today through blood, sweat and tears, which makes us infinitely proud."
Kate Mulleavy & Laura Mulleavy
Is there any relationship in the world that is stronger than family? Rodarte, a brand founded by sisters Kate Mulleavy and Laura Mulleavy in California in 2005, was named after the maiden name of the two designers' mother. It rose rapidly after appearing on New York Fashion Week. From childhood to adulthood, the two sisters have almost never left each other. They also studied together at the University of California, Berkeley, but Kate studied art history and Laura studied English literature. In order to raise funds to establish the brand, Laura sold her first iPod and Kate sold her entire 25 cartons of record collections. In the early days of the brand, Kate was mainly responsible for drawing sketches, while their mother was responsible for jewellery design.
After releasing its spring and summer collection in 2006, Rodarte was nominated for the "Perry Ellis" award from the CFDA, and gradually gained the favor and praise of designers such as Karl Lagerfeld and Christian Louboutin. In June 2009, Kate and Laura won the CFDA's Best Womenswear Designer of the Year Award. This pair of sisters, who have never received any formal design or fashion production courses, finally wrote their own story with their unique perception of art and tacit cooperation with each other. Exquisite hand-made techniques and innovative designs are the characteristics of Rodarte. In the autumn 2012 series, the brand used exquisite embroidery techniques to show its extreme pursuit of details. The works are full of soft layers of chiffon and exquisite hand-stitching, exuding a noble and gorgeous atmosphere. The autumn and winter 2024 series is more like tailor-made for fairy tale goddesses or witches. Victorian-style dresses are paired with oversized leg-of-mutton sleeves and exquisite metallic lace, making the fashion full of magic, quiet and mysterious.
Laura Fanning & Deanna Fanning
Laura Fanning and Deanna Fanning are another pair of twin designers in the fashion industry. They began to be responsible for the women's wear department of Kiko Kostadinov in 2019. Kiko Kostadinov, which started out as a men's wear designer, has gradually grown into a mature fashion brand with the help of the Fanning sisters. Not only does it develop men's and women's wear simultaneously, it has also launched a series of popular collaborations with sports brand Asics. Influenced by their aunt who was a wedding dress tailor, the Fanning sisters began to get involved in fashion design. Both of them studied at Central Saint Martins College in the UK. Deanna studied for a bachelor's degree in knitwear, and Laura enrolled in a master's degree in fashion with her sister in 2016. In the spring of 2019, just seven months after graduating, the sisters were invited by Kiko Kostadinov to launch the women's collection. They are good at making knitwear with unique effects, trousers with novel cuts and vivid prints. They inject new vitality into ordinary clothes through graphic art and playful and eye-catching colours, and have attracted the attention of fashion icons such as Dua Lipa and Bella Hadid.
In this season's 2025 Spring/Summer collection, Kiko Kostadinov collaborated with Levi's to launch a new men's and women's collection for the first time. The Fanning sisters brought a new interpretation to the colour, cut, and texture of denim. A series of jeans, denim trousers, and knitted tops used bold design techniques such as twisted seams, ventilated copper eyes, texture details, and pleats. The denim fabric is washed in amber tones and paired with irregular washed prints. The two sisters use design details to interpret the charm of denim fashion.
Tamara Ralph & Michael Russo
The beauty of love is a moment of heartbeat, which leads to the continuation of a relationship and then turns into a romantic memory. Australian designer Tamara Ralph and her husband Michael Russo founded the brand Ralph & Russo in 2006. In just ten years, the brand has found a place in the world of haute couture and is loved by celebrities and even royals around the world.
The story begins with two people in a small couture studio in London, England, who founded the brand Ralph & Russo with just a few million pounds and a sewing machine. In December 2013, Ralph & Russo was admitted to the French Haute Couture Union (Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture), becoming the first British brand to be included in the official program of Paris Haute Couture Week since 1915. In December 2017, when Meghan Markle appeared in a dress from the brand in a portrait celebrating her engagement with Prince Harry, the brand became an instant hit and almost a household name in the UK. Soon, super-rich people from all over the world became Ralph & Russo's customers. Middle Eastern royal families, billionaires, and Hollywood actors have all chosen Ralph & Russo's dresses. By 2018, in addition to the custom dress business, Ralph & Russo has also expanded its multi-line business to custom children's clothing, business wear, and family wardrobes. Unfortunately, Tamara Ralph announced her withdrawal from the brand in 2021. The romantic love ended with one party leaving, but Ralph & Russo continued the next chapter while also remembering the beauty of the past.
