Rixo started in 2015 when Henrietta Rix and Orlagh McCloskey, who met studying fashion management at the London College of Fashion, turned a shared love of vintage clothing into a business. They launched the label from the university flat they lived in together, hand-painting the first prints themselves before delivering samples to buyers on foot. The brand name simply combines Rix's surname with the O from Orlagh's first name, which says something about how personal the whole project still feels. Rix now runs Rixo as CEO with McCloskey as creative director, and the label has stayed independent for a decade, without outside investors.

The dresses here carry that vintage instinct forward. The Losanna satin maxi dress and the Emory lace-trimmed maxi lean into old-fashioned glamour, while the Cathy floral-print midi dress and the Amari checked midi dress feel closer to a 1970s tea dress. Start with the fabric before the print, and decide from there how bold you actually want to go.

Orlagh McCloskey still hand-paints many of Rixo's prints, which is part of why the separates never feel like filler next to the dresses. The Brody crochet-knit top and the Erika lace-trimmed blouse give that print language room to breathe away from a full dress, while the Milia floral-print blouse keeps the pattern front and center in a smaller dose. The Marcela lace-trimmed wide-leg pants pick up the same texture vocabulary in a shape you can wear with a plain top, and the Jade pleated lace midi skirt does something similar below the waist. Once you own one big dress, these pieces let you build a wider wardrobe around its mood instead of repeating the same silhouette. A shearling-trimmed jacket thrown over any of it keeps things from reading too sweet.

Rixo works best when the print is something you would choose again a year later, not just the one that catches your eye in a photo. The dresses do the obvious job, but the separates, a crochet top or a lace-trimmed blouse, are what keep a Rixo wardrobe from turning into a costume box. The hand-painted prints are genuinely the reason to shop this label, so buying one that leaves you lukewarm defeats the purpose. I would save the boldest florals for occasions that can hold them and let a plainer voile top or a satin skirt handle the everyday work. Pair one memorable print with a quiet texture like cotton, suede or satin, and the whole outfit reads considered instead of costumey.