Love Toteme? Here Are 6 High-Quality, Affordable Minimalist Alternative Brands

This article specifically compiles minimalist luxury brands that I find to offer great value for money, with 4 main characteristics: good value (under 10,000 yuan), minimalist monochrome style, unique innovative design, and excellent fit. The main drawback is that the fabrics are somewhat inferior - there's little cashmere, summer dresses and short sleeves are mainly cotton-linen and silk, while suits and coats are wool. If Vicuna is the fabric standard for testing top-tier brands, then cashmere is the standard for testing these mid-range brands.

(For more information about high-end fabrics, read: How to Choose the Softest, Warmest, and Most Luxurious Coats: A Detailed Guide to 4 Premium Fabrics)

In this price range, there's also Nehera , Lorena Antoniazzi,House of Dagmar, By Malene Birger ,Proenza Schouler, but they either have ordinary designs lacking originality or use inferior fabrics or synthetic materials like viscose, triacetate, and polyester. Therefore, these 5 brands are not recommended. I've written about them before as part of my experience.

Below are brief comments on these passed-over brands, selected based on my personal preferences and current understanding:

Nehera: Being a Slovak brand relaunched in 2014, their distribution channels are somewhat lacking, making purchases difficult. There's a huge difference between their lookbook styles and website offerings, with the website being basically for show with few categories, mostly basic cotton tops and jackets. Nehera's lookbook styles are decent - sisters who can visit their offline stores in Vienna or Bratislava might want to take a look, as these are currently their only physical stores with more variety.

Lemaire: When I first started writing about fashion, I wrote about them, but later learned that while their brand story marketing and design are passable, their quality and fabrics are poor with excessive brand premium. There are many negative reviews on Xiaohongshu, so I never wrote a dedicated article about this brand.

Lorena Antoniazzi: Though they have 1-2 cashmere sweaters at the high end, their design level is very ordinary. Their website is poorly done, dark, and doesn't even have model photos for products.

House of Dagmar and By Malene Birger: Mainly ordinary cotton pieces with basic designs. Being Nordic brands, their sizing runs large and isn't suitable for Asian bodies.

Proenza Schouler: Worth a quick look at their boots, but completely skip their clothing. The brand hasn't been doing well in recent years, struggling but heavy on marketing with many celebrity, TV show, and influencer collaborations. Their clothes are all synthetic materials. Their boots are 100% sheep or cowhide with mostly leather soles.

As for Toteme itself, I only buy their leather shoes, belts, and leather goods, which are made in Italy, and consider their silk series for summer clothes. Their pants and wool coats are quite ordinary, with poor fabrics and standard designs, less distinctive than the 6 brands I recommend below.

The Row and Khaite belong to high-end minimalist luxury brands, with prices and materials in a different league, so I won't mention them here. I'll later publish a dedicated article about brands comparable to The Row in pricing, materials, and design. This article emphasizes value for money, after all, Toteme is The Row's budget alternative.

Besides excluding high-end minimalist luxury brands, I've also excluded cashmere brands, as excellent cashmere brands deserve their own chapter.

I've added 2 brands specifically making Alpaca wool coats and knitwear. Brands focusing on Alpaca as their main material generally offer good value while maintaining luxurious minimalist design. Firstly, Alpaca costs less than cashmere, and secondly, since Alpaca comes from Peru, these brands are designed by American and Canadian designers from the same continent who excel at modern minimalist design.

I've previously written detailed brand stories for most brands below - click the green text for links to learn more. Here I'll only highlight key points.

These brands are priced similarly to erdos cashmere, so why buy them? Of course, it's for the design and fit, so with these brands, you should choose pieces that really test fit like dresses, coats, trench coats, and capes. Skip basics that don't challenge design and fit like vests, short sleeves, and cardigans - many Chinese domestic brands can substitute these, are cheaper, and even have better materials.

I'm not writing about pants here, firstly because you need to try them on to see the fit, and secondly because these European and American brands' pants tend to run long, not suiting Asian body types.

CO Collection

CO's signature 95% Virgin Wool black suit offers great value for money - while La Collection charges $1,400 for this fabric, CO Collection prices it around $800.

Their 100% cotton white shirts have great structure.

CO Collection's cashmere series tends to be thinner. These three lightweight cashmere base layers are bestsellers, giving off an executive vibe.

Another signature CO design is their loose-fitting wide skirts in 100% Cotton Poplin.

For their pricier items, this series of skirts and pants either uses 100% Virgin Wool or 100% Crepe Silk. Since CO Collection is lower-priced, their fabrics naturally drop a grade, using Crepe viscose or triacetate. This series isn't recommended - it's available in both white and black on their website.

CO's shoes are also quite good.

Prune Goldschmidt

All Prune Goldschmidt 's ruffled pieces are worth considering - this is their signature design. Start with their white and black ruffled shirts, then look at their ruffled dresses and trench coats.

Also notable are Prune Goldschmidt's Navy Blue striped shirts, double-breasted wool suits, and dress pants.

Overall, Prune Goldschmidt mainly uses cotton and viscose fabrics, with some wool blends in their outerwear, but their designs are truly distinctive. For more about Prune Goldschmidt, check out their featured article on the homepage.

Emi Mess

A long-term focused brand created by Emilie Messal, born in the Paris suburbs, in 2020. Emi Mess emphasizes French local craftsmanship, natural leather dyeing, and handmade production to avoid overproduction, with a limited product range. They specifically support pre-orders and can make personalized modifications based on your needs.

"Each piece is designed in France and then handmade by our local craftsmen.
Our will is to maintain the « Made in France ». Thus some of our collections are made by our French craftsmen."

Emi Mess designs in France and aims for handmade in France production by local French artisans. However, a small portion is handmade in Poland.

This brand currently has low visibility in China - no information on Xiaohongshu and no retail channels in China. Only available through overseas shopping or visiting France.

Emi Mess primarily uses silk in summer, followed by cotton, and wool in autumn/winter. They stick to eco-friendly and natural concepts, avoiding synthetic fibers. Combined with mostly handmade in France production, it offers great value.

Priority should be given to their summer 100% silk crepe dresses, skirts, pajamas, and tops.

Next are their suits and trench coats in 100% wool with 100% cupro lining. The entire Jacket & Coat category only has 5-6 pieces, true to their quantity over quality philosophy.

My favorite Emi Mess piece is this trench coat, just over 1000 euros - it would cost at least 2000+ euros at La Collection or Armarium. 100% wool with 60% acetate and 40% cupro lining.

With spring coming to Beijing and strong winds, it's perfect trench coat weather. While organizing these minimalist luxury brands, I've unconsciously focused on trench coats.

Joseph

Joseph is primarily worth considering for coats, though their coats mainly use wool fabrics, like 80% wool with 20% cashmere, or 85% wool with 15% silk - no 100% cashmere coats.

Their most expensive Coat series items are several shearling coats, but I don't recommend buying shearling from mid-range brands as the wool tends to be rough. The best shearling I've seen was from Brunello Cucinelli, naturally expensive at 100,000+ yuan, but with wool as soft as cashmere. Regular ones use sheep shearling, while BC uses goat shearling. Since trying BC's, I'm no longer tempted by regular shearling, no matter how good they look. Even Toteme has a shearling coat with rough wool. Like fur coats, I believe with shearling, you should buy the best or nothing.

Back to Joseph - besides wool coats, dresses are worth considering. Like their coats, Joseph dresses use around 80% wool blends, and considering potential roughness, they use merino wool for dresses.

Although Joseph's 100% cashmere sweaters and 100% silk tops are popular, I personally find them too thin and lacking in substantial design, so I don't recommend them.

Joseph has physical stores in China, including outlet stores. There are also many counterfeits on Taobao.

Sentaler

Sentaler only makes alpaca coats with just two fabric options: 70% baby alpaca and 70% suri alpaca. Suri is more expensive, warmer, finer, and has better luster. I personally recommend these pieces in Suri Alpaca.

Besides the long style above, Sentaler also offers knee-length versions in Suri Alpaca. Sentaler is the only brand in this article that also has menswear, though it's probably hard to find men's styles in China.

Below is baby alpaca, with noticeably less luster than above and somewhat cheaper.

I personally find baby alpaca somewhat scratchy. The photo in this article shows Sentaler's baby alpaca cape - I usually wear a scarf or neck warmer to protect my neck.

Lauren Manoogian

Lauren Manoogian 's Alpaca isn't as good as Sentaler's - it's scratchier, but excels in color and design. I only found this one piece with 43% baby Alpaca, let alone Suri Alpaca.

Due to affordable prices, great colors and design, and decent warmth from Alpaca, it's become quite popular in China these past two years, even opening pop-up stores in places like SKP.

Lauren Manoogian became famous for these Alpaca cardigans, and now also offers vests and short-sleeve pieces.

Rohe

RÓHE, a minimalist brand from Amsterdam, Netherlands, rarely exceeds 10,000 yuan and is often praised as a budget alternative to Jil Sander and Hermès - many pieces look very similar, indicating a lack of distinctive design. It's more well-known in China and collaborates with some boutiques.

I'm discussing this last as a counterexample of how to evaluate clothing. The 6 brands introduced earlier are all acceptable - while their fabrics aren't exceptional, they maintain design standards as minimalist designer brands. Rohe lacks this design standard, evident in their suits.

Looking at the shoulder and back areas of these suits below, you can see why they're called alternatives - the details look cheap, with shapes carelessly constructed. It's like cutting chicken - experienced butchers cut by section, keeping wings as wings and thighs as thighs, maintaining each part's structure. Inexperienced ones just chop randomly into pieces. These alternative brands like Rohe are similar - they match the color and rough shape, but destroy the overall form.

Look at the shoulders, back, and arms of these 3 suits - space exists where unnecessary and is missing where needed, resulting in bulkiness. Compare these to the suits from CO and Emi Less discussed earlier.

Rohe uses 50% polyester in their fabrics. The 4 brands above (excluding the two alpaca brands) might use viscose but never use the lowest-grade polyester.

If you must buy Rohe, consider their most expensive coats, like these two - one 100% goat suede, one 100% wool. At least their fit shows no obvious issues. These appear to be their flagship products, available for around 1,500 euros, which is reasonable.

Also consider their 100% silk shirts when on sale. Though still uneven in quality, they're worn as underlayers so fit is less crucial. For the discerning, better to skip Rohe entirely.

Epilogue

Currently, these 6 brands seem suitable, with value, design, and craftsmanship comparable to Toteme, each with their strengths. The lower prices mean inferior fabrics. Besides fit, consider fabric comfort.

Of course, better fabrics mean higher prices - I'll write later about the top minimalist luxury brands in the 10,000-30,000 yuan range. Those 6 brands have no flaws except their price.

pamperherself