Women's Fashion Brands M

Welcome to the M section of the Women's Fashion Brands directory. In this area of the fashion brand directory you will find women's fashion brands from leading apparel companies and fashion designers that begin with the letter M: 15 brand profiles in all, gathered in the grid below, from Maggy London to Mudd. M is the directory's designer-heavy letter - it holds an American designer who created Louis Vuitton's first ready-to-wear line, two Italian houses of colour and down, a 1922 foundation-garment rebellion, a camouflage empire that began as a fistful of dirt, and the flare-leg jean that made a junior brand in 1995.

If you know of an important women's fashion brand that begins with the letter M and is not listed in this section, please let us know. And if you prefer to search by clothing category rather than by a specific clothing brand, the Clothes Guide linked from this page organises the same wardrobe by garment instead of by name. Every profile in this letter gives the facts as stated - founding dates, ownership changes and the founders' own words - with shopping guidance built around them and nothing invented in between. One profile keeps the directory's honest thin-record form: Maxx New York, which states plainly that it has no information beyond handbags and an uncertain status.

Fifteen Brands: Dresses, Foundations, Knitwear, Down and Denim

The letter opens with dresses and foundations: Maggy London, the runway interpreter whose unique prints and flattering fits translate styles of the moment into accessible occasion dresses, and Maidenform, founded in Bayonne in 1922 by Ida Rosenthal, Enid Bissett and William Rosenthal in rebellion against flat-chested designs, sold to Hanesbrands in 2013. Marc Fisher brings the letter's career footwear story - a Nine West co-founder's son, 30 years designing for others, then the clean, effortless 'new casual luxe' under his own name - and Marc Jacobs the designer summit: a first collection in 1986, Louis Vuitton's creative directorship from 1997 to 2014 and its first ready-to-wear line, Marc by Marc Jacobs from spring 2001, and over 200 stores in 80 countries.

The Max trio divides three countries and three ideas: Max Mara, established in Reggio Emilia in 1951 by Achille Maramotti, who saw mass production of designer quality early and employed Lagerfeld, Castelbajac, Dolce & Gabbana and Rodriguez under a brand-first rule; Max Studio, Leon Max's upmarket designer label founded in 1979 and sold through stores, boutiques, the web and department stores; and Maxx New York, the handbag company with a thin, honest record. Merrell follows with the outdoors: first products and the first QForm women's hiking boot in 1983, the Eagle in 1985, a first cross-trainer in 1993 and a Wolverine World Wide home since 1997.

M closes at full stretch: Michael Kors, established 1981, producing under the Collection and MICHAEL Michael Kors labels from handbags and watches to fragrance; Missoni, Ottavio and Rosita's 1953 Gallarate workshop turned pioneering multicoloured knitwear house; Moncler, René Ramillon's 1952 label named for Monestier-de-Clermont and bought by Remo Ruffini in 2003, most known for down jackets; Moschino, Franco Moschino's 1983 house of wit - fairies, industry criticism, early-1990s social awareness campaigns - succeeded by Rossella Jardini and inside Aeffe since 1999; Mossimo, Mossimo Giannulli's 1986 surf-sport-urban-street blend, Iconix-owned and Target-exclusive in 2017; Mossy Oak, Toxey Haas's 1986 West Point camouflage company under Haas Outdoors; and Mudd, made popular by its affordable 1995 flare-leg jean, bought by Iconix in 2006 and exclusive to Kohl's.

From these pages, readers can move onward - to the brands' official sites linked in each profile's references, to Apparel Search's own Maidenform, Merrell, Hanesbrands and Iconix company profiles, to the Bra Glossary and the Marc Jacobs and Michael Kors designer pages, and across the directory to popular brands, designers, retail and wholesale guides - woven into the copy or listed under More to Explore. Fifteen brands spanning 1922 to 1995, a fistful of dirt and a first ready-to-wear line, an egg-free letter of coats, colour and camouflage: M is the women's brands directory at its most various.