Our guide to shopping from fashion’s rising stars and independent makers this festive season
Over the past year, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know some of the most exciting new talents in fashion for my monthly column, Uprising; learning about their novel ideas, strange material inventions, and small but important rebellions against outdated systems. If I’ve learnt anything from these conversations, it’s that these people do what they do for the love of their craft – something they hope anyone who buys a piece of their world can feel in every stitch, button and seam.
With that in mind, as the season of giving gets underway, I implore you to resist buying yet another candle or pair of socks and choose something interesting, well-made, and genuinely joy-sparking instead. Broadening Uprising’s remit to include booksellers, vintage textile purveyors and more, here are the very best independent makers to support this Christmas.
Jake’s Christmas pop-up
(Image credit: Michael Hemy and Lauren Rusha)
Led by Jake Burt – one half of London brand Stefan Cooke – Jake’s has quickly become the fashion insiders’ favourite shopping haunt and weekend hangout. Open only on Saturdays, people come for the clothes and stay for the vibes, with living-room couches offering a place to chat and sample beautiful bakes by chef and model Louis Thompson. The curation is ever-changing and personal, mixing Burt’s own one-off jackets made from vintage British textiles with limited-edition pieces by independent makers and friends, including vintage handkerchief accessories by Cooke, rivulet leatherware by Six95, and handmade ribbon cards by Nina Grüninger. Staring out in the space beneath the brand’s studio, Burt has now put down roots on Vyner Street in Bethnal Green and even taken Jake’s on the road with pop-ups overseas. Anyone in Seoul shouldn’t miss the next one, taking place at Addicted Seoul on 13 and 14 December, while in London, this Saturday (6 December, 1-9pm) there’s a festive special.
Jake’s runs every Saturday at 63 Vyner Street, London. Follow @jakewkburt for updates and opening times.
Johanna Parv’s ‘Action’ accessories
Johanna Parv is an Estonia-born, London-based designer who makes clothes for women on the move. Designed to adjust fluidly to the wearer, her wardrobe is sleek and buttery soft, balancing the ergonomic function of cycling gear with the sharp sophistication of formalwear. In recent seasons, Parv has expanded her remit to include cleverly engineered accessories, each one worn and tested by the designer around the city before going into production. Her latest invention is the ‘Mini Link Action Bag’, a compact leather pouch that sits squarely on the chest and carries only the essentials for urban survival: phone, keys, lip balm. An ideal present for the friend who treats London like an obstacle course (and still looks chic doing it).
The ‘Mini Link Action Bag’ is available from Johanna Parv’s website.
Georgia Kemball’s Christmas jewellery edit
(Image credit: Georgia Kemball)
Known for her signature goblins and Victorian-inspired pins, in the years since founding her namesake jewellery brand in 2019, Georgia Kemball has steadily become the London fashion crowd’s favourite independent jeweller – making everything from bodywear for Dilara Findikoglu shows to innumerable bespoke engagement rings for the city’s most stylish women. Her pieces are stocked in Dover Street Market and available by appointment in her new studio, and this year Kemball has also launched a special Christmas shop on her website, which will be refreshed all month with beautiful one-offs. Consider it your shortcut to winning gift-giver of the year.
Discover Georgia Kemball’s Christmas shop on her website.
B.B. Wallace’s enveloping knits
(Image credit: Luna Conte)
If you haven’t heard of B.B. Wallace yet, you probably will next year. The independent knitwear project is led by Meryll Rogge, cult Copenhagen designer and Marni’s newly-tapped creative director (she succeeds the popular Francesco Risso, with her first runway set to take place in 2026). Representing a slower creative outlet, a relief from the pace of her own label and her role at the Italian house, B.B. Wallace is led by Rogge alongside knitwear specialist Sarah Allsopp. The pair launched over the summer with a timeless, deeply wearable capsule of double-faced Donegal jumpers, accessories and home pieces, all crafted with the ease and warmth of family memories in mind (the brand is named after Rogge’s sons). The duo’s seasonal edit of cosy blankets in wintery shades make the perfect accompaniment to a Christmas-Day nap on the sofa.
B.B. Wallace is available from the brand’s website.
Renaissance Renaissance’s Beirut pop-ups
Raised in her mother’s Beirut atelier, Cynthia Merhej brings a deeply intimate, craft-led sensibility to her LVMH-nominated brand, shaped by a childhood spent sketching, styling, and photographing garments as they were being made. Her mother’s upbringing was much the same, with her grandmother also a regarded couturier in the city – an inter-generational lineage woven through Merhej’s resolutely feminine, carefully crafted wardrobe today. Bringing together the community that surrounds her label, this month the designer is hosting a series of pop-ups in Beirut, including an Archive Sale at the BEIT Collective Showroom in Achrafieh and a one-night collaboration with artist Rawan Rahim on 20 December at Aout Gallery. Head to the designer’s Instagram to find out more.
August Barron’s unconventional sweaters
(Image credit: August Barron)
No item says ‘Christmas gift’ quite like the humble jumper – but if you’re planning to give one this year, why not make it something with a bit more personality? Design duo August Barron, formerly known as All-In, have you covered, with a fresh restock of their delightfully off-kilter triple-layered knits landing on their website just in time for the holidays. First seen in their A/W 2025 lookbook shot by Sharna Osborne, the style stacks candy-coloured jersey with marl grey wool, embodying the fabulously chaotic feminine characters at the heart of the brand.
August Barron’s triple-knit sweater is available from the brand’s website.
Kiko Kostadinov’s new London store
(Image credit: Jack Moss)
Last month, Kiko Kostadinov celebrated the opening of its new flagship store in Hackney – a futuristic, rust-carpeted space below the brand’s studio designed by THISS Studio, complete with a site-specific installation by long-time collaborator and artist Ryan Trecartin – with a special collection that merged mens- and womenswear for the very first time. Using the occasion to have some fun, the collection was a love letter to Kostadinov and the Fanning sisters’ dog Dante (the office mascot), twisting ideas of British countryside dressing through witty Lakeland terrier motifs, alongside the debut of a new earth-shaded collaboration with Levi’s. Whether it’s a metal pin that reads ‘professional dog walker’ or a woolly hat, you’re sure to find something special for the stylishly inclined dog lovers in your life. Tokyo-dwellers, don’t miss a ‘sonic experience’ taking place in the brand’s new Shibuya store this Friday 5 December, with live performances by percussionist Midori Tadaka and experimental composer Konrad Sprenger. The event is in celebration of the label’s new Asics Novalis release, and the first 250 people through the door will receive a free T-shirt, poster, and programme.
Kiko Kostadinov London, B1 Unit, Adelaide Wharf, 21 Whiston Rd, London E2 8EX.
Kiko Kostadinov Tokyo, 2-32-3, Jingumae, Shibuya, Tokyo 160-0001, Japan.
Jess Maybury’s jewel-box textiles
Model-turned-textile purveyor Jess Maybury opened the doors of her Hackney Road studio this past weekend (29 November), showcasing a jewel-box selection of vintage quilts, kanthas, rugs and hand-worked antique textiles – the kind of one-off gifts you won’t find anywhere else. A love for the stories held in old cloth was shaped in Maybury from an early age, as the daughter of interiors specialist and textile dealer Louisa Maybury. These days, the pair travel together on buying trips to India and North Africa, where Maybury finds pieces rich with character, craft and quiet history. While the pop-up has now wrapped, her latest finds are still available to browse and buy through her website.
Jess Maybury’s textiles are available at jmaybury.com
The Paul Smith Foundation’s Fashion Residency’s Christmas market
(Image credit: Renata Brenha)
The Paul Smith Foundation’s Fashion Residency Christmas Market returns this year, uniting a cohort of London’s most exciting early-career designers under one roof at Paul Smith HQ in Smithfield, Farringdon. For only a handful of days the studio will transform into a festive emporium of clothes, accessories, samples, archival finds and brand-new pieces by the likes of Renata Brenha, Paolo Carzana, Petra Fagerström, Masha Popova, Paolina Russo, Karoline Vitto, YAKU and more. With mince pies and Sir Paul Smith himself on site for the market’s opening on Thursday evening, it’s a rare chance to see designers’ work up close – and tick a few names off the Christmas list in the process.
The Paul Smith Foundation’s Fashion Residency’s Christmas market takes place at Studio Smithfield from Friday 12 – Sunday 15 December.
Troy Town’s takeover of Sadie Coles The Shop
(Image credit: Troy Town)
This December, Hoxton-based ceramics atelier Troy Town takes over The Shop at Sadie Coles HQ – the gallery’s curated retail space dedicated to spotlighting emerging curators and makers, first developed with young gallerist Sam Will in 2021 – with a presentation of 200 new pieces of Anglo-Japanese pottery from their winter firings. Running 4-24 December, the display includes personally signed, one-of-a-kind works by founder Aaron Angell, each shaped by the studio’s distinctive cross-pollination of English ceramic history and Japanese craft traditions. It’s a rare chance to bring home something handmade, characterful, and certain to charm anyone who unwraps it. Elsewhere, on Troy Town’s website, you can also purchase the organisation’s cult T-shirts, which mash-up historical figures – from Goethe to Erik Satie – with illustrations of ceramics.
Troy Town runs at The Shop at Sadie Coles HQ from 4–14 December. T-shirts are available from Troy Town’s website.
Sage’s fashion-inspired festive flower arrangements
Crafting arrangements for clients like Martine Rose and Gucci, south London’s coolest florist is undoubtedly Sage Flowers. Alongside its characteristically sculptural winter bouquets, this year, founders Romy St Clair and Iona Scott-Mathieson have gone a step further for Christmas, creating wreaths inspired by Japanese design greats Issey Miyake and Comme des Garçons. Sure to add a directional twist to any doorway, if you can’t quite stretch to archival Comme for Christmas, these wreaths will more than do.
Enquire at sageflowers.co.uk
Hato Press’ eclectic gift shop
(Image credit: Hato Press)
Hato Press has opened a Christmas shop in its Faye Toogood-designed space, nestled just off the Golden Lane Estate on Clerkenwell’s Goswell Road. Alongside the chance to pick up one of the publisher’s characterfully-designed books, the shop brings together an edit of handmade wares by independent makers and friends, including jewellery by Alec Doherty, sculptural objects by Louie Isaaman-Jones and knits by Waste Yarn Project. To kick off the festivities, Hato is hosting a late-night shopping evening on Thursday 4 December with a toast of gløgg (Scandinavian mulled wine) and natural wine from Gergovie Wines. From incense to ceramics and books, expect beautifully made things you’ll inevitably want to keep for yourself.
Hato Press Christmas shop, 20 Goswell Road, London EC1M 7AA.
Gala Colivet Dennison sculptural curiosities
Gala Colivet Dennison isn’t really a jeweller, but a sculptor. Born in Hackney and raised in France by antique dealer parents, the designer studied fine art at Kingston University, where she worked in large-scale sculpture before turning her hand to jewellery in 2017. As such, a sense of architecture runs through her chunky, sharp-lined pieces, which marry gleaming metalwork and natural stones in striking configurations. Stocked in Dover Street Market and Harvey Nichols, she has also branched out over the past year into ashtrays and objet d’art, creating silver forms that stand proudly on alien, curved legs with rounded, spaceship-esque receptacles. They would make the perfect gift for a design-obsessed loved one who already has everything they need.
Gala Colivet Dennison is available at Dover Street Market and Harvey Nichols
Brooke Callahan’s candy-coloured basics
(Image credit: Brooke Callahan)
Up until now, fans of Brooke Callahan had to travel to Amsterdam to try on her pieces at Carmen boutique or wait patiently for the occasional pop-up. But the Los Angeles designer’s crisp, colour-blocked cotton staples have finally found a home at Turn Shop – the homely London store run by sisters Millie and Iona in Newington Green, known for their curation of ceramics, jewellery and knitwear by independent makers. Among Callahan’s cult favourites, the signature tie-side trousers make an excellent gift for that freelancer friend who seems to somehow always be on holiday.
Brooke Callahan is stocked in the Turn Shop, 47 King Henry’s Walk, London, N1 4NH
J.L-A-L’s seasonal scarves
(Image credit: JLAL)
Set to make his Paris Fashion Week debut during the menswear shows in January, London-based designer Jean-Luc Ambridge-Lewis (the mind behind J.L-A-L) has already carved out a reputation for his subversive, performance-wear-twisted takes on the modern men’s wardrobe. His seasonal wool scarves in earthy greys, burgundy and teal – designed with holes in the centre so they can be adjusted by the wearer, or woven in diamond patterns and finished with shoulder-closure buttons – make the perfect present for your fashionable younger brother. With a cleverly engineered collaboration with Goldwin 0 already under his belt, Ambridge-Lewis is a name to watch in 2026.
J.L-A-L’s scarves are available from his website.
Perfect Lives’ offbeat ephemera
(Image credit: Photography by Michael James Fox)
Want to impress the family member who loves records, refuses to get a Kindle, and always has their nose in a niche paperback? Head down to Perfect Lives’ new space on Hackney Road. Based in south London since 2017, the offbeat secondhand shop specialises in records, books, and ephemera of a ‘weird, wonderful and oddly specific’ genre – including rare fashion and photography tomes. Founders Bruno Halper and Daniel Lichtenstein source their stock from markets and house clearances across London, seeing their work as a kind of modern-day treasure hunt. You’re bound to leave with something unusual – or, at the very least, discover a new rabbit hole to disappear into.
Perfect Lives, 278 Hackney Rd, London E2 7SJ
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