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When Talia Loubaton came up with the design for her Raja jacket, she hadn’t intended to start a clothing brand. Inspired by the traditional sherwani menswear styles she saw during a trip to Jaipur in 2018, she was initially looking to make a version for her own wardrobe. “What struck me was the simplicity of the silhouette,” says the Paris-born designer. “It reminded me of some cuts from the ’70s, and I’ve always been really into fashion from that era.”

The jacket (£1,200), featuring an elegant Nehru collar, velvet-trimmed flap pockets and a slightly darted waist, has since become a signature style of Liberowe, the women’s tailoring brand Loubaton launched in 2021. Drawing on ’60s and ’70s French films such as Manon 70 as well as ceremonial Indian attire, Liberowe’s collection of tailored separates blurs the lines between day- and eveningwear: sleek bouclé-tweed shift dresses, cotton-poplin shirts with vampish lace-trimmed collars and peplum jackets in sumptuous red velvet and black silk (shirts from £480). The majority of pieces are manufactured in London using ultra-fine fabrics (some of the brand’s wool and tweed comes from the same factories as Chanel’s). The label is steadily gaining ground: direct sales of the Raja jacket have increased by almost 200 per cent in the past year.

“With every collection I’m thinking, how can I make a nice blend of something masculine with something feminine, or combine something from the Orient with the Occident,” says Loubaton, who specialised in knitwear at Central Saint Martins. “I’m always trying to merge different antipodes.”

I really wanted to lean into a more feminine silhouette

Liberowe is one of a number of new tailoring-focused labels. Copenhagen-based Bonnetje, founded by Maison Margiela alums Yoko Maja Hansen and Anna Myntekær, cuts up old men’s suits and splices them into feminine, slightly offbeat creations, while Rohé in Amsterdam has become a word-of-mouth hit thanks to pieces such as “backward” blazer tops (£640) and tailored jackets with extra-large vents (£640), which delicately straddle the line between classic and avant-garde.

“I love the challenge of going back to a classic suit or classic coat and making it different somehow,” says Argentinian-Italian designer Veronica de Piante, who launched her namesake label of contemporary tailoring, outerwear and knitwear in 2022. Produced in family-run factories in Italy as well as in collaboration with the social enterprise SEP Jordan, de Piante’s offering melds a certain Italian sprezzatura – inspired by her Milanese upbringing and “seeing all these elegant people in their beautiful, tailored suits” – with a love of ’90s minimalism: leather belted trench coats, pinstripe wool jackets with nipped-in waists and tailored minidresses and skirts (from £860) in flattering crepe.

“I’m not the type of person to stand in front of my wardrobe and put an outfit together,” says de Piante. “I’m quite lazy. I don’t want to think about it too much. But if I throw on my Charlotte trench or a beautifully cut blazer, I feel polished. I feel comfortable walking into any situation.” 

The lack of good skirt suits was part of what spurred Stacey Gallello to launch a made-to-measure tailoring house last year. “When I was looking to fill my personal tailoring needs, it was all very masculine, and the designs offered for women were kind of an afterthought based on the menswear,” says Gallello, whose sophisticated skirt suits hark back to the polished style of silver-screen sirens Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn (from £5,000). “There was a great offering of boxier blazers and trousers, but I really wanted to lean into a more feminine silhouette.”

Róhe wool tailored jacket, £740

Liberowe wool tweed Peplum jacket, £1,500, and Vera mini skirt, £480 

Inspired by the archives of Gallello’s husband’s grandfather Dominic Gallello, who worked as a pattern maker for Christian Dior in the 1950s, Gallello Atelier aims to fill the gap between ready-to-wear and haute couture. Each piece is handcrafted in its Venice atelier by a master tailor and sold via trunk shows in London, Paris, St Tropez and Riyadh as well as private appointments. “I feel like we talk about craftsmanship a lot but it’s this really abstract concept,” says Gallello, who plans to open a salon in London. “We are trying to go back to that era of the 1950s couturier’s atelier and connect clients with those artisans.” 

Although of a more bohemian aesthetic, Copenhagen-based La Bagatelle has a similar ethos. “After years of working in fashion magazines I saw the effect of mass production and over-consumption and wanted to contribute something different,” says Malene Malling, who worked as a magazine editor and publisher before launching the label three years ago. Using unique textiles such as 100-year-old Indian embroidered silk and 1930s vintage Chinese cotton as a starting point, each piece is made by independent tailors in Copenhagen. 

“Tailor-made pieces feel so gentle on the body, and I love the fact that the limitation of fabric means that for most styles it is only possible to do a few of each,” she says. Her clothes, such as drapey wool jackets with sloped shoulders and needlecord trousers with elasticated waists, have a soft, easy elegance, designed for women who lead “full and real lives”, she says. “The La Bagatelle wardrobe has to look and feel special but at the same time, the clothes have to ‘work’.” 

For de Piante, it’s the simplicity and timelessness of tailoring that makes it so excitingly ripe for reinvention. “Growing up, my mother was always obsessed with blazers, and I used to think, ‘God, how boring!’” she admits. “But I’ve now realised that all you really need is a good jacket or a good coat to feel dressed.”