On October 2nd, SSENSE brought Salon des Refusés to Paris for a one-day celebration of emerging fashion and creative culture during Paris Fashion Week.
Open to the public from 12 PM to 6 PM, the pop-up brought together Kanika Agarwal, Laura Andraschko, MERRMA, Petra Fagerström, RESCHA, SECONDA, and Stephen Jones, inviting visitors to discover, try on, and purchase pieces from the participating designers.
Taking its name and spirit from the original Salon des Refusés of 1863, which challenged the Paris art establishment by giving boundary-pushing artists a platform to redefine culture, SSENSE reimagined that spirit for fashion today, spotlighting designers pushing the industry forward through their own distinct perspectives.
The pop-up brought the online SSENSE experience into the physical world, creating an opportunity for the community to engage directly with the designers and their work. Throughout the afternoon, visitors could see and try on pieces they would typically encounter through SSENSE online, while also having the opportunity to shop the selection in person.
As the pop-up came to a close, Salon des Refusés continued into the evening with a celebration of creativity and the community surrounding it. Memphy took to the decks throughout the night, with a special showcase from Smerz at the heart of the evening. The gathering brought fashion and music together, extending the spirit of Salon des Refusés beyond the daytime pop-up.
Discovery has long been central to SSENSE. More than a retailer, SSENSE has served as a platform for cultural curation, introducing emerging designers to a global audience alongside established luxury brands. Salon des Refusés brought that legacy into the physical world.
| THE DESIGNERS Kanika Agarwal Kanika Agarwal debuted her namesake label in 2026 after working at Lanvin and Saint Laurent under Anthony Vaccarello. Based in Paris, the designer draws on her Indian heritage and her education at New York’s Pratt Institute, where she majored in fashion design and minored in philosophy. These influences surface in floral motifs inspired by Indian botany and sharply tailored suits with a Parisian sensibility. Each look is designed with intention, whether destined for a special occasion or everyday wear. Laura Andraschko Defined by sharp wit and decadent glamour, Laura Andraschko’s designs draw on her formative years spent in Berlin, New York, and Antwerp. Now based in London, the Central Saint Martins graduate launched her namesake label in 2021, where collections mix the timeless with the topical to create a netherworld where flirty dresses, statement footwear, and irony-laden graphics all share a closet. With typography and aesthetics that nod to early-internet culture, Andraschko’s work offers a playful rebuke to the self-seriousness of contemporary womenswear. |
| MERRMA Merrma, whose name comes from the Wagiman word for walking by the water and searching for something with your feet, is a Paris-based label founded in 2023 by Lorelei Goude and Jojo Schult. The brand presents an eclectic yet directional array of women’s head accessories, ranging from hair clips to hats. Crafted in France, statement acetate clips and combs arrive in artfully sculptural shapes, balancing found-object charm with polish and finesse. Scrunchies, hats, and headbands are trimmed with lace and feathers, adding texture to tied-back hair. From its material choices to its ornate constructions, Merrma takes special care to elevate a category of accessories often treated as an afterthought, reintroducing the way we tie, clip, and adorn our hair as an avenue for self-expression. |
Recommended For You
Swedish designer Petra Fagerström founded her eponymous label in 2025, a year after graduating from Central Saint Martins; a few months after that, she was a finalist for the 2026 LVMH Prize. Fagerström presents a vision of femininity that is at once refined, distorted, and attuned to our digital age, with warped proportions and fabric manipulation used to glitchy effect. Her collections include streetwise staples like midi skirts, cropped leggings, and bell-bottom trousers reinterpreted with intricate patterns and textures designed to reveal more to the wearer over time.
Rescha is a luxury fashion brand that depicts the experience of living between the French and Indian cultures, through the study of personal narratives and heritage textile techniques. Identity, multiculturalism, and artisanship are the foundations of the collections. Rescha – ‘Resha’ means yarn in Hindi. All our clothes come from carefully chosen yarns, exclusively using deadstock and sustainable fibers. hat is the exclamation mark.”
Established in 2024, Seconda is led by Italian-born, Paris-based designer Andrea Bertazzon alongside a rotating cast of collaborators and producers. Operating on its own calendar of a single collection each year, the brand prioritizes meaningful, modular design over seasonal output. Versatility defines its open-ended silhouettes and convertible constructions, with garments designed to be styled in multiple ways. The result is a considered, personal wardrobe built around longevity, individuality, and the freedom of self-expression.
Stephen Jones
Stephen Jones is one of Britain’s legendary milliners, whose hats have graced the runways of fashion’s brightest stars, from Jean Paul Gaultier to Vivienne Westwood to John Galliano at Dior. With a career spanning over four decades, Jones’s creations are imbued with a rebellious spirit, having drawn inspiration from scenes like punk and new wave, elevating headwear that one might sport to the club to the realm of wearable art. “In the language of fashion,” he once stated, “a hat is the exclamation mark.”
