ALÉMAIS

ALÉMAIS

Lesleigh Jermanus spent about sixteen years designing for Australian labels including Marcs, Nicholas and Zimmermann, was made redundant in March 2020 as the industry shut down, and started ALÉMAIS at her kitchen table that August with her husband Chris Buchanan. The label is built on prints, embroidery and a different artist collaboration every season.

Dresses

The printed shirtdress is the founding product and still the clearest expression of the brand. Jermanus draws on her Lebanese heritage for the pattern and embroidery work, and each season the house partners with a different artist so the prints are authored rather than licensed. That practice goes back to her earlier work alongside makers in Vietnam and Kenya.

Tops and shirting

The origin story is unusually specific. She lost a design job a few months into it when the pandemic hit the Australian fashion industry in March 2020, and launched her own label in August of the same year with Buchanan as chief executive. Five years later it is stocked in essentially every major department store.

Trousers and shorts

Australia's National Designer Award, which recognises emerging labels, went to ALÉMAIS in 2022. The following May the brand was given the opening slot at Australian Fashion Week. That is a fast two years by any standard.

Knitwear

The house works in matching sets as much as single pieces, which is why the knitwear and the printed separates are designed to be bought together. Craft, community and sustainability are the stated values, and the artist collaborations are the part that actually proves them. Everything else is standard contemporary production.

Skirts

In 2025 the label staged a runway show in Marrakech built around twenty-three dresses, which is a confident thing for a five-year-old brand to attempt. Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Hudson, Lashana Lynch and Nicola Coughlan have all been reported in the clothes around that period. Those wearer reports come from a single write-up, so hold them loosely.

More from the collection

Jermanus and Buchanan still own it, with no outside acquisition reported. That independence is why the artist programme has survived commercial growth. It is the rare print label where the pattern is the point rather than the packaging.

Our honest take

Buy the shirtdresses and the sets, which is what this house does better than its Australian peers. The artist collaborations are worth paying attention to if you want a piece that dates in an interesting way rather than a boring one. Print-averse shoppers will find nothing here.