Opening the door to Samantha Pleet’s studio is like entering an exotic fantasy world. It’s filled with a jumble of artifacts, tiny knick-knacks, and enough items from The Evolution Store to make me very jealous—the studio’s a spacial manifestation of Samantha’s imagination.

The Brooklyn based designer started her brand in the fall of 2006 and it’s been unstoppable. It has a sense of old-world whimsy while still being twenty-first century practical (the proliferation of rompers will prove that, as will the fact that a majority of the collection is made from eco-friendly materials). Her 2008 collaboration with Urban Outfitters, Rapscallion by Samantha Pleet, made her a household name (at least households with cool kids inside them).

Samantha herself is a bit of a renaissance woman: she produced short films for both her SS10 and AW10 collections, she paints, and she collects tons of little trinkets.

Time Out New York who recently named Ms. Pleet one of their best dressed New Yorks, and bands like Au Revoir Simone and The Dirty Projectors covet Ms. Pleet’s indie frocks, so you don’t have to take our word for it to know she’s one of New York’s coolest young designers.