Mary Ping (New York)

Plenty of high school girls want to be fashion designers, but Mary Ping actually did something about it, landing an internship at Balenciaga at the tender age of 15. With a degree from Central St. Martins under her belt, she returned home to New York, where she's been an under-the-radar cult fave since launching her own line for Spring 2002. She hasn't escaped the critics' notice, though -- Ping was among a select few chosen last year for the V&A's exhibition of New York designers, and is a current darling of the influential JC Report.

Stine Goya (Copenhagen)

Though her line bears many of the hallmarks of her Scandinavian provenance (jumpsuits aplenty! sack-like shirtdresses! unflatteringly baggy pants!), former model Stine Goya's line pops out for a major reason: having trained under Eley Kishimoto and Jonathan Saunders, she has a fearless hand with color. With a flashy summer palette of red-orange, lemon yellow, aqua, lilac, and periwinkle, and a trademark print of round drips (or are they hand mirrors?), this Central St. Martins grad's sophomore collection hit the Copenhagen runways like Dorothy landing in Oz. 

By Malene Birger (Copenhagen)

The grande dame of Danish fashion, Malene Birger presides over a growing flock of brands: By Malene Birger, Day Birger et Mikkelsen, and her latest venture, Day et Friends, a collaboration whose first collection was designed by club-kid designer duo Preen - a rare break for the prolific Birger, who sent out some 90 runway looks for her Fall 08 collection. With looks ranging from Dickensian urchin to mod stewardess to hippie grandma, it's hard to pin down Birger's style, but with her imprints carried in stores all over the world, she hardly needs to explain herself.

Baum und Pferdgarten (Copenhagen)

With their Spring 2008 collection, Rikke Baumgarten and Helle Hestehave made a bit of a departure from their usual Victorian references, tossing in a sporty motif with bright stripes, track shorts, pleated tennis skirts, and knee- and shoulder pads -- those last in black leather, of course. Launched in 1999, Baum und Pferdgarten has spent the last 10 years as a major force in Danish fashion, winning numerous awards and appearing in museum exhibitions. The ladylike line has also found a cult following abroad, with its shiny silks and summer furs, its puff sleeves and ruffle collars, sold as far away as Tokyo and Hong Kong.

Cheap Monday (Stockholm)

Once upon a time, in an age before premium denim, $65 jeans seemed unreasonably expensive. Then came Diesel and Seven and True Religion, who taught us that denim could be sexy, and that the more we paid for our jeans, the sexier we'd be. Sure enough, we got sexier and sexier, and our wallets got emptier and emptier, until some crazy Swedish people had the bizarre idea that a simple pair of skinny jeans could be cheap and chic. Those people were Cheap Monday. 

The brand started as an in-house line for Weekday, a Stockholm shop that had morphed from vintage boutique to high-end fashion emporium. Designer Örjan Andersson had the idea for cheap, fashionable jeans, and starting in 2005, the brand's skull-logo jeans spread like wildfire around the world. Weekday's latest venture is a dressier line called Kostym, a slightly more expensive brand featuring high-end detailing on Chinese-made slim, classic blazers, trousers, bomber jackets, and yes, jumper dresses that work equally well at the office or onstage at a rock show. What's next? A world takeover is most likely in the works: H&M has lately bought a 60% stake in the company.

Whyred (Stockholm)

So you want to start a Swedish fashion label. You'll need a big dose of the color black. High-waisted pencil skirts and trousers. Chunky black leather heels, or let's say wedges. Drapey tank tops. A mannish blazer. A jumpsuit and a girlish X-back jumper dress. Got all those? Congratulations: it's Whyred's spring collection! 

If designers Roland Hjort, Lena Patriksson, and Jonas Clason have Swedish fashion down to a formula, there's a reason for that -- the three met as colleagues at H&M. They launched their men's line in 1999 and the women's line the following year, and have since grown Whyred into a global brand complete with eyewear line, art collaborations, and sales in 230 stores around the world, including three stores of their own in Stockholm. 

Camilla Norrback (Stockholm)

Camilla Norrback calls her design philosophy ecoluxury, creating garments in eco-certified natural materials that she says are "good for both body and conscience." For spring, this means a line inspired by adult responsibilities and carefree childhood, with short, swinging hemlines, ladylike cardigans, and one very grown-up briefcase-inspired bag. The palette is mostly black, white, and gray, with splashes of pastel lime and pinks.

Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair (Stockholm)

With one British (Lee Cotter) and one Swedish designer (Astrid Olson), it seems almost too obvious that their line would be a blend of classic tailoring and androgynous, dark-hued deconstruction. And yet Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair seamlessly blends those styles to create a line of knits and wovens that is at once architectural, experimental, and fully functional, with pieces ranging from shredded cotton jersey tanks with the lowest of armholes to sharply tailored coats with layers of lapels. Ann Demeulemeester, eat your heart out!

Mongrels in Common (Berlin)

Designers Livia Ximénez-Carrillo and Christine Pluess met at Berlin's Esmod School of Design and never looked back. Their shared multicultural backgrounds inspired the name for their line Mongrels in Common, which won the Premium Young Designers Award for its very first menswear collection, for Fall 2006. True to its name, the line combines disparate elements such as masculine and feminine, classical and avant-garde, and bright and neutral colors, creating a fresh, sophisticated chic that encompasses draped and tailored pieces, day and eveningwear, all sewn from high-end European wools and silks.

Boessert/Schorn (Berlin)

Drapey and deconstructed in a style reminiscent of New York's Three As Four, this women's line from designers Sonia Boessert and Brigitte Schorn plays with volume, drape, and fabric to create a look that is modern without being severe, experimental yet perfectly wearable. Loose tops and dresses are adorned with fringe, cutouts, and twine. Launched in 2003, Boessert/Schorn has already found its main audience in Japan, with a brand-new US foray at Creatures of Comfort in L.A.