1. AJOVANG — 10/10

AJOVANG was the standout of the night.

Everything felt considered. The patterns, styling and accessories worked together instead of fighting for attention, and every look felt like it had something different to say. That's difficult to pull off: allowing individual pieces to tell their own stories while still making the collection feel intentional.

There was a gracefulness to the collection that separated it from the rest of the show. It didn't need to scream for attention. The clothes did the work.

Tasteful, eye-catching and complete.

10/10. No notes.

2. MDDLGRND — 9.5/10

MDDLGRND understands the art and science behind this shit.

In an era where starting a clothing brand can sometimes mean putting a screen print on a blank and calling it a collection, seeing actual craftsmanship matters. mddlgrnd brought that to the runway.

The use of different materials, accessories and handcrafted elements made the collection feel alive. Everything meshed together without becoming predictable, and the brand delivered what was arguably the strongest menswear look of the entire show.

More importantly, there was evidence of someone actually making clothes rather than simply making merchandise.

Overall, this might have been the biggest vibe of the night.

9.5/10.

3. DOG FACE — 9/10

DOG FACE surprised me.

I've seen what the brand brought to the BeWellAgency show before, and last year's showing was good. This year was different. This year felt like a brand that knew exactly what it wanted to be.

There really wasn't a bad look in the set.

DOG FACE's darker, goth-leaning identity isn't going to be everybody's thing, but that's almost the point. A strong brand shouldn't have to appeal to everybody.

The womenswear was where DOG FACE really separated itself. The men's pieces were solid, but the women's looks consistently stole the attention and gave the collection some of its strongest moments.

Last year was good.

This was amazing.

9/10.

4. VINCITIA — 7.5/10

Before anything else: crochet takes time.

So, brava to you, queen.

There's something special about seeing work on a runway where you can immediately understand how much time went into creating it. Vincitia deserves credit for that craftsmanship alone.

Individually, there were looks that worked really well. Each piece seemed to have its own personality and its own story.

As a complete collection, though, that became both its strength and weakness.

The looks didn't always feel like they belonged to the same story. At times, it almost felt like we were watching pieces from multiple different collections.

But cohesiveness isn't everything.

When the individual garments are interesting enough, sometimes you can forgive the lack of a perfectly packaged narrative.

7.5/10.

5. APT.315 — 7.5/10

I'm already familiar with APT.315, which probably made me judge this collection a little harder.

I've seen some of the brand's previous work, and personally, I think I've seen stronger things from them before. That's not to say this was a bad showing. There were still pieces that caught my attention.

The denim truck cutout jacket paired with the denim bungee cord flare was one of them.

When APT.315 gets it right, you can see the vision immediately. My biggest issue was my expectation going into it. I Thought we would get more, like maybe he would step out of his comfort zone but, sadly that didnt happen.

There are good clothes here.

I just wanted a more.

7.5/10.

6. SEWNBYSYDNEYY — 7/10

Again, craftsmanship gets points over here.

SEWNBYSYDNEYY is another brand actually constructing pieces rather than relying solely on graphics and screen printing, and that deserves recognition.

Kudos to you, Sydney.

There were strong pieces throughout the collection, but the aesthetic leaned heavily into a vintage, thrifted and upcycled direction. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing—it just wasn’t what I was looking for from this particular collection.

Still, I’ll always respect an artist who takes the time to actually create something with their hands. There’s a difference between producing clothing and producing art, and even if every piece doesn’t connect with me personally, I can appreciate the time, thought and craftsmanship that goes into making something from the ground up rather than simply having a machine put an image on a shirt or pair of pants.

7/10.

7. ZAVII — 6/10

ZAVII had some moments, but overall, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the menswear. It just didn’t connect with me, mainly because I feel like I’ve seen similar styles and silhouettes so many times before. The looks weren’t necessarily bad, but they felt repetitive and a little too familiar for me to really get excited about them.

The womenswear, however, was a different story. Those looks felt stronger, more elevated, and showed more of the creativity I wanted to see from the men’s side. There were moments in the womenswear where I could really see the vision of ZAVII coming through. I just wish that same energy and freshness carried across the entire collection.

6/10.

8. RRYNN — 6/10

Rrynn had a few standout moments, though not always for the right reasons.

Visually, the collection felt scattered, which made it difficult to understand the overall direction or story the brand wanted to tell. The menswear felt stronger and more intentional than the womenswear, while some of the women's looks felt mismatched when styled together.

Maybe that's intentional.

If unpredictability and clashing elements are part of Rrynn's identity, there's absolutely an audience for that. Fashion doesn't always need to be clean, cohesive or easily understood.

But from a casual viewing perspective, it didn't completely land.

At times, it felt less like a collection and more like a random, and rushed. — interesting pieces were there, but I wanted something to pull everything together and tell me why these clothes belonged next to each other.

6/10.