For several seasons, over three or four years, we watched from afar as Carl Jan Cruz built beautifully singular collections that took ideas about tailoring, proportion, and material somewhere new while expressing something deeply familiar, too. Elements of tradition and craft, rooted in his native Philippines, are by turns overt, abstract, and nuanced. When you hear that he studied menswear at London College of Fashion and spent time at Phoebe Philo’s Celine before launching his own brand and returning home to Manila, the direction, the vibe, the aesthetic all sort of lock into place. As Carl’s island nation (where all...

Tokyo-based Yusho Kobayashi is the first designer to weigh in on our series “Right Now,” which works like a sort of barometer for these times.  There’s a crazy-quilt energy to Yusho’s work that feels emotive, romantic, and very tender, so we were especially curious to understand how the Central Saint Martins-trained maker was faring amid the restrictions and difficulties in Japan.  “I realize I really love fashion in these days,” he told us. “Life is not much different as before; I have worked at my studio, but around me is getting different—I could not buy fabrics, every shop is closing,...