Fashion

This Trade Show Puts Creativity In A Capsule

It’s the fight against that Zara top your whole gang owns

We all love finding new small brands to assimilate into our wardrobe. Particularly, brands that offer the coolest pieces that will leave your friends and family jealous or ones that create accessories that more than "kind of" fit your personal style—they fit it perfectly. While bigger brands try to create products that appeal to the mass, these smaller niche labels have the opportunity to create unique products with a specific appeal, and won't leave you wearing the same thing as someone else in the room.

Capsule, a tradeshow launched in 2007 through the fashion consultancy BMPW, is an aggregator of these indie brands. Bringing them together for trade shows all around the world, it creates something that has the wide scope and audience base of any fast fashion brand, without having to sacrifice quality or inventiveness. As some of the brands in NYLONshop overlap with those in Capsule, we went to their most recent New York trade show to visit some of our own favorites, but also to check out what else they have to offer.

We quickly learned Capsule isn't just for one kind of person. While Kallmeyer NY’s designs will become a quick favorite of any minimalist, scene queen-turned-fashion maven, Jac Vanek’s bold graphics will “speak to your sassy soul.” Meanwhile, IGWT’s pieces will turn the heads of jewelry obsessed. These designers each have their own distinct personalities, and it certainly shows through their merchandise, allowing consumers to find pieces to express their individual selves and help them avoid buying yet another color of the same sweatshirt their friends already have. (You know the exact sweatshirt I am referencing.)

We got some of our friends at the show to talk about their brand's aesthetics, the sacrifices they make, and how it feels to see strangers in their designs. Their passion and authenticity affirmed for us what we already knew: indie brands are the way to go, forever and always.

Watch the video above to see the designers at Capsule in action. Hopefully, you fall in love with them as much as we did. If so, you can, of course, go directly to NYLONshop to snag anything that may catch your eye.