Brandon Maxwell Talks 10-Year Anniversary, Redefining Success and 'Valley of the Dolls'

History is rife with examples of people discovering that fame and success aren’t nearly as satisfying as they appear from the outside. But many of us pursue them nonetheless. Including Brandon Maxwell, who launched his namesake line in September of 2015, when he was best known as Lady Gaga’s stylist. (Anyone else totally forget about that?)

For his celebratory 10-year-anniversary show at Sotheby’s in New York City Tuesday night, he wrote his own show notes. They begin:

A decade ago, my mom asked me what it would take for me to consider my brand a success.
“10 years,” I told her.
And here we are. That was quick.

Few modern texts capture the futility of success better than Jacqueline Susann’s 1966 novel “Valley of the Dolls.” A recording of the novel’s poignant opening passage (which has stuck with me since I read it myself nearly 20 years ago), clipped from the book’s 1967 film adaptation, was included in the soundtrack as models walked the runway:

You’ve got to climb Mount Everest to reach the Valley of the Dolls. It’s a brutal climb to reach that peak. You stand there, waiting for the rush of exhilaration, but it doesn’t come. You’re alone and the feeling of loneliness is overpowering.

In an interview backstage after his show, which you can watch in the video below, Maxwell said he’d recently gotten into the “Valley of the Dolls” film soundtrack, which led him down a Jacqueline Susann rabbit hole.

“At the time, [she] was not as celebrated as she is now,” he noted. “I don’t want to explain too much [about] all my choices on this show, but they were all deliberate.”

Perhaps relatedly, now that Maxwell’s 10-year-marker has come and gone, the designer says his perception of success has naturally evolved, writing in the show notes, “In the face of the challenges that come with running an independently-owned American fashion brand today, the courage to grow and unfold in relentless pursuit of passion is a success all its own.”

I also asked him what advice he would give to the 10-years-ago version of himself that was just starting out, and the answer also fits into this theme of redefining success: “Decide what success is for you and hold tight to that, and don’t let it change based on what’s going on in the industry, the world, people around you,” he said. “What’s your bar? As long as you’re meeting that, then nothing else really matters.”

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There was nothing particularly retrospective about Maxwell’s Spring 2026 collection. “I wasn’t really interested in looking back in any sort of way. I was really interested in just moving forward,” he said. “I started with tailoring just the same as I did for my first collection 10 years ago, and I just let it evolve from there.”

The brand’s “next chapter,” as Maxwell calls it, involves beautifully tailored blazers and pencil skirts, sequined plaid dresses in joyful colors, more sweaters-as-scarves and its first “evergreen” handbag style called The Maxwell. It features an external strap “to hold your newspaper or your sweater, whatever it is you want on it, because that’s how I carry my paper to work in the morning,” the designer explained. Models carried them with that day’s newspaper — a decidedly analog touch amid today’s growing reliance on digital devices and AI. Maxwell may have evolved a lot personally and creatively in the last 10 years — but technologically? Not so much: “I’ve literally just figured out email.”

See the Brandon Maxwell Spring 2026 collection below.