Budapest Central European Fashion Week AW 2025: Ten Brands To Watch

Twice a year, Budapest Central European Fashion Week brings together the best in Hungarian fashion design alongside some of the most innovative brands from other Eastern European fashion weeks including Ljubljana, Belgrade and Bucharest and Polish, Czech and Slovakian brands. The 15th edition this month featuring 27 Hungarian and 20 international designers was open to industry professionals, with some tickets also available to the general public. Fashion filled the city, with nearly 50 locations hosting public showroom openings, pop-up events, roundtable discussions and exclusive fashion shows. Of the nearly 50 brands who showed, here are ten of the most creative and eco-conscious.

Zsófia Jakab, Ministerial Commissioner for the Creative Industry and CEO of the Hungarian Fashion & Design Agency, summed up the event’s objective perfectly, commenting that the fashion week “encapsulated everything that defines the development of the regional fashion scene: respect for traditions, openness to innovation, the importance of international partnerships and strengthening the industry’s heritage alongside supporting young talents.”

Kicking off fashion week this month was a strong showing from Belgrade-based designer, Budislava Kekovic. Trained as a costume designer, Budislava worked in theaters and on film sets across Serbia. These experiences influenced her eponymous fashion brand and today she designs clothing, shoes, bags and jewelry which features simple, chic lines with an emphasis on monochrome combinations. The striking collection shown in Budapest featured floaty skirts and dresses in gauzy, translucent fabrics in deep black, white and midnight blue.

This Romanian knitwear brand describes itself as sustainable, slow fashion as it was built on responsibility and respect for the resources and people involved in the lifecycle of the designs. Production is very limited production per style, offering beautifully crafted items that are exclusive; not only through the yarns and the way it is produced, but also its limited availability. For the catwalk show at BCEFW, the designer made a brave decision to show all the looks in red, ensuring a very memorable show.

One of the strongest presentations at BCEFW was by design duo Kata Szegedi and Daniel Benus who showed their latest menswear and womenswear in a riverfront disused warehouse. The edgy location complemented the outerwear on show. Standout looks included a fuchsia pink and blue full length wool coats. The designer duo’s aim is to create pieces full of passion, objects of desire, inspiration drawn from Budapest. Contemporary art, youth culture and urban lifestyle are combined with an emphasis on tailoring and the use of custom-developed fabrics.

Part of the Slovenian showcase, Monika Colja’s M N K C L is an independent womenswear brand. An innovative and edgy collection hit the catwalk, featuring a mixture of tailored and looser silhouettes. The attractive color palette ranged from black and white to beige and chocolate, with splashes of pale pink and red. The brand uses different textile approaches and printing techniques while also upcyling and using deadstock materials found here and there. Due to this way of working, each piece is unique, even when made multiple times.

For their Autumn-Winter 2025/2026 collection, this high-end Hungarian streetwear brand envisioned a futuristic world intertwined with elements of modern streetwear. It explores the intersection of robotics, AI and societal aspirations, bringing these themes to life through innovative design. The new collection features organic cotton and recycled materials, reinforcing their eco-conscious mission, layered compositions and a mix of oversized and skinny cuts. Many pieces include intriguing patterns and inscriptions written in Hungarian Cyrillic or Far Eastern characters, often coded.

Established in 2014, Cukovny is known for its puffer jackets and separates often in colorful designs, all designed and manufactured in Hungary, using Responsible Down Standard certified Hungarian premium goose down in all their products. Their puffer jackets feature exchangeable elements so you can remove a hood or sleeves, transforming the jacket into a gillet. The AW25 collection just showcased in Budapest embodies the harmony between nature and imagination, featuring bold silhouettes, fluid forms, and surreal floral motifs.

Since launching ten years ago, menswear brand Zsigmond has created unique garments meant to last, all produced in Hungary from organic and recycled fabrics, purchased from transparent, European manufacturers and often using dead stock materials of luxury brands. Strongly influenced by the heritage of the past, especially by Hungarian folk dancing and peasant culture, the designer Dora Zsigmond sometimes uses traditional costumes as a starting point for her designs.

Boglárka Bódis worked with Triumph as a lingerie designer before launching her womenswear brand Elysian in 2012 in Budapest. The brand’s characteristic sophisticated tailoring, craftmanship, flowing fabrics, self-designed digital prints, hand pleating, and transparent layering were all on show for her runway show. The new collection was inspired by the beauty and mystery of the night sky, featuring sparkles, celestial motifs and luminous details.

This Budapest-based “slow fashion” womenswear brand uses on-demand manufacturing for its colorful designs. The elements of art, architecture and industrial design inspire the brand’s distinctive, colorful prints. The AW25 collection was inspired by the warmth, functionality and handcrafted beauty of peasant kitchens. Enamel pots, clay jars, and “butykos” water jugs came to life on the catwalk through rich textures, earthy tones and hand-drawn prints.

Part of a New Generation Collective show, Sophiaron’s collection also embraces and reinterprets Hungarian peasant culture. Nóra Szarka, a craftsman-loving designer, immersed herself in the preservation of Hungarian traditions from a young age. Her fascination for traditional dressing and craft culture grew into a deep respect and it became her mission to find ways to preserve her heritage in today’s fast-paced world. Due to industrialization and globalization, traditional textiles and regional handicraft products have been pushed out of the fashion industry. Founded in 2022, the brand features bold yet timeless pieces, ethically made in Hungary using organic and recycled materials.