There’s a certain pride in knowing a brand is local — made in Malaysia, built by someone who probably walks the same streets you do in Kuala Lumpur, navigating the same broken systems, chasing the same creative dream. And that pride hits differently when you understand just how hostile the fashion ecosystem here can be. Especially in KL, where style lives in a cultural in-between — caught between ambition and creative limitation, between the chase for global relevance and the reality of being perceived as “just local.”
That tension hasn’t gone anywhere. In fact, it’s only become more visible. Brands now launch at warp speed — gather two weeks of social media hype, drop a few pieces, then vanish before they even find their footing. Meanwhile, fast-fashion giants like Shein and Temu have collapsed originality into pure trend turnover. Visuals get recycled. Aesthetics are flattened. And most upstart local brands don’t build community — they cosplay an aesthetic to keep the algorithm happy.
Sure, the barrier to entry is lower now. But the barrier to lasting? Especially in a country where the creative economy is underfunded and often underappreciated? That still takes clarity, discipline, and a lot of nerve.
Which is exactly why the brands that survive — or the ones just now carving out space for themselves — are worth paying attention to. In a landscape this crowded, standing out means knowing who you are. When you don’t have the luxury of hype machines or funding safety nets, you’re forced to build something real or be forgotten. And for some, that pressure produces something genuinely compelling.
Men’s Folio Malaysia spotlights a list of local brands that deserve your radar now — so that when they break out, you can say you were there since day one.
All Love
Cult brands don’t happen by accident in 2025, especially not in a landscape where trying to be different often ends in sameness. But somehow, Amirul Danial cracked the code. The self-proclaimed anti-influencer who’s become the blueprint for a whole generation has built something that feels both familiar and new. Loved by the boys, followed for the fit pics, and watched for the attitude.
Post-rebrand this January, All Love moved fast — with campaigns hitting 70K to 90K views, a leather bag drop that sold out in days, and a café party in broad daylight that looked like it came straight from someone’s FYP. The appeal? A brand that’s intentionally exclusive but still feels accessible. It mirrors Amirul himself — someone who doesn’t play by the rules, but somehow still rewrites them.
INSERENITY
Cyberpunk may have lost its mainstream gloss, but INSERENITY hasn’t stopped building its world. With limited drops of accessories like eyewear and caps, the brand takes familiar, utilitarian staples and reimagines them through a post-human lens, layering 3D-printed elements onto classic forms until they feel almost alien.
And the delivery leaves an impression as much as the product. Campaigns aren’t styled shoots or pretty faces. Instead, you get surreal, hi-fi videos that feel more like cutscenes from a video game: avatars wearing the drop in strange digital spaces. There’s no face or personality to endorse it, only product design and a deep sense of atmosphere of a brand that builds its own universe through future story telling.
Romance 1314
Chen Gan, a Central Saint Martins graduate, founded Romance 1314, which explores Southeast Asia’s visual history through faded postcards, family albums, and everyday objects from before fashion became content. From there, the brand blends everything together: pastels, laser cuts, tie-dye, and florals that appear more remembered than rendered.
Motifs are gentle—butterflies, flowers, soft blurs—and evoke fragments of memory rather than polished icons. Romance here is expressed through texture, tone, and an emotional register that is more atmospheric than literal. The work both resists and embraces nostalgia, favouring reinterpretation over replication in a tender, abstract, and distinctly Southeast Asian spirit.
ETCID
Some brands want polish. ETCID wants grit. Launched in 2024, the label made its stance clear from the start: spotlighting the people and subcultures fashion usually skips. Their debut, led by the Shinigami Motorcycle Club, was shot at night, on the street, raw and unfiltered — with no heavy styling tricks or the usual photography filters.
Since then, ETCID’s collections have doubled down. Garments come cut open, stained, frayed — like they’ve lived through something. While streetwear elsewhere gets more curated, more pristine, ETCID stays lo-fi, personal, and intentionally imperfect.
DIRGE FOR A DREAM
Surrealism can be found throughout the Dirge For A Dream collection. Its universe feels like a half-remembered memory: bomber jackets from another timeline, raw pink ties, and genderless silhouettes that don’t require explanation.
Details are important here. Everything has a slight distortion; pieces appear to have aged forward. It’s romantic, but not in the clichéd way. More like a dream that lasts long after it ends.
Not In List
Techwear gets an illustrated introduction at Not In List. Known for their gear-heavy silhouettes — tactical trousers, structured jackets, multi-pocket layers — the brand roots itself in manga-inspired visuals, drawn by its founder Xavier Ou. Each drop comes with mock-comics and worldbuilding cards, expanding an alternate sci-fi universe around the clothes.
Function drives form at the brand, but the styling goes beyond practicality by tapping into fantasy, futurism, and play.
Problemes23
Rooted in a vision of futuristic rebellion, problemes23 builds its world through utilitarian pieces that skew angular, structured, and deliberately unconventional. Futuristic forms are grounded by muted neutrals, balancing experimentation with wearability. The result feels speculative but lived-in — clothing that imagines tomorrow without disconnecting from the present.
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