SIMKHAI Dresses and Bags

SIMKHAI Dresses and Bags

Jonathan Simkhai launched his namesake label in New York in 2010, coming out of his family's apparel manufacturing business and training at Parsons and the Fashion Institute of Technology. The brand built its name on draped eveningwear and body-conscious tailoring, won the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund in 2015, moved its studio to Los Angeles in 2018, and dropped Jonathan's first name from the label in 2023 to put the focus on the wider team.

Collage of runway looks, campaign shots and street style outfits that capture the SIMKHAI mood

Dresses

Draping is the throughline of Simkhai's career, going back to a label that grew out of his family's manufacturing business rather than a design-school portfolio. This first grid leans on that instinct, with construction doing the work that embellishment might do elsewhere. It is dressing built around movement, not a static silhouette.

Embroidered eveningwear and modern minis

The pieces here keep the label's signature contrast of clean lines with intimate hand-detailing, the combination that earned Jonathan Simkhai a shared CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund win in 2015. Sequins and fringe show up in small, targeted amounts rather than covering a whole gown.

Relaxed gowns and occasion dresses

A third pass through eveningwear that has not changed its basic argument since the brand moved its studio to Los Angeles in 2018: construction first, decoration second. The tailoring loosened somewhat with that move west, and these silhouettes show a slightly more relaxed hand than the label's earliest New York years.

Evening clutches and sculpted tops

Beyond dresses, the brand's daywear applies the same engineering to simpler pieces, the kind of thing Jonathan Simkhai has said he wants to feel confident and effortless rather than fussy. Knitwear and separates round out a wardrobe that started as gowns and grew into something a woman could wear five days a week.

Textured tops, skirts and footwear

Accessories and bags, launched in 2019, extend the brand beyond ready-to-wear into a fuller lifestyle offering, part of the push that came after the 2018 move to Los Angeles. The detailing stays consistent with the dresses: hand-finished touches on otherwise clean, considered shapes.

Tailored separates with tactile knits

More of the label's day-to-night separates, built on the same body-conscious tailoring that has defined Simkhai since its 2010 launch. These are the pieces that do not usually make the runway highlight reel but carry the brand's actual sales, according to reporting on its growth after the Fashion Fund win.

Knits, swimwear and weekend denim

A final stretch of the assortment spanning knitwear, tailoring and eveningwear pieces, the full range the brand has built since joining the CFDA's official New York Fashion Week roster. Fifteen years after launch, the label is still working from the same basic vocabulary: construction, drape, restraint.

Construction beyond a signature

Dropping the first name in 2023 was a genuine repositioning, not just a logo refresh, and the collection backs it up: this reads like a team's output rather than one designer's signature moves repeated on loop. Fifteen years on from a 2010 launch, the label's construction-first habits are still doing the heaviest lifting, which is the mark of a real design philosophy rather than a passing aesthetic. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together The Best SIMKHAI Dresses to Shop for Fall 2026.

 

For more in the same spirit, take a look at Etro Dresses and Bags and Toccin Dresses and Knitwear.