Is Alémais a Luxury Brand? Prices, Craft and Why It Costs What It Does

Alémais is an advanced contemporary label rather than a luxury house. A dress costs between AUD 490 and AUD 1,300 at the brand, a tee AUD 220 and a beaded showpiece AUD 1,600. On Luxury Handbags most of its styles land between $415 and $865, with a median of $690, against a Zimmermann median of $1,590. It shares floors with luxury at Liberty, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and Bloomingdale’s, and its prints and handwork are the reason people search for it. Here is what you are paying for, and what you are not.

Who is Alémais

Alémais is the label of Lesleigh Jermanus, an Australian designer with a fine arts degree and more than twenty years in the industry, including senior design roles at Zimmermann and Marcs. She launched Alémais in Sydney in 2020 with her husband and co-founder Chris Buchanan, still directs it, and has been named Designer of the Year at the Australian Fashion Laureate awards. The house describes itself as a wardrobe of optimistic prints, patchworks and embroideries made from plant-based fibres, and that is an accurate summary of what arrives in the box.

Every collection is built around commissioned artwork. Alémais has worked with fourteen artists in its first four years, among them Nadia Hernández, Sam Pauletto, Anouk Colantoni, Adam Lester, Chesca Athas, Karlee Mackie and Laurence Leenaert, and each print is drawn for the season rather than bought from a print library. That is the first thing that separates it from a mid-market floral.

What Alémais costs

Brand prices are from alemais.com in September 2026 and Luxury Handbags prices from our live listings on the same day. Luxury Handbags prices are in US dollars and include Luxury Shoes ’s sourcing and insured express shipping; duties are collected on delivery for most countries, as set out on our shipping page.

Where the money goes

Original artwork

A print house buys a design and prints it. Alémais commissions a painting, a collage, a folk motif, then engineers it onto a garment so the placement works on a sleeve, a yoke and a hem. Every print is digital, which the brand reports as 100% of its printing, and digital printing uses far less water and chemistry than screen printing. It is also slower and dearer per metre.

Hand embroidery and beading

The embroidered and beaded pieces, the Limelight Mini Dress with its all-over paillettes, the Lenny gown with a single beaded flower, the Odessa embroideries, are worked by hand. Alémais reports 6,219 artisanal products across 58 styles since launch, and a written artisanal sourcing policy that covers pay and intellectual property. That is why a beaded mini costs AUD 1,600 while a printed one costs AUD 490.

Cloth

Linen is 55% of everything Alémais has made by weight, and in 2024, 85% of it was European flax. The rest is silk twill and sandwashed silk satin, organic cotton at 72% of its cotton use, responsibly sourced viscose and RWS-certified wool for the knits. Synthetics were under 5% of fibre use in 2024, and most of those were recycled. Plant fibres cost more than polyester and they are the reason the pieces wear in rather than wear out.

The tree and the traced supply chain

Alémais plants a tree for every garment sold, and has funded more than 600,000 through Ecologi, plus 12 hectares of Daintree rainforest with the Gondwana Rainforest Trust. It has traced 100% of its garment factories and 59% of its fabric and yarn mills, and had every supplier audited under SMETA, BSCI and Fairtrade by the end of 2023. None of that is free, and all of it is in the price.

Alémais against the houses it is compared with

Read that as a ladder and Alémais sits one rung below luxury on price and level with it on the things luxury is supposed to mean: original design, natural cloth and handwork. The full comparison with its closest rival is in Zimmermann vs Alémais, and the wider field in brands like Alémais.

Is it worth it

For the pieces that carry the brand’s point, yes. A printed linen shirtdress at AUD 590 to 690 is a garment you will still be wearing in five summers, and the print will not be on anyone else. The beaded and embroidered styles are made in small runs and rarely reappear, so they are the ones to buy when you see them. The place to be careful is a plain solid, a chocolate blazer, a cream skirt, where you are paying Alémais prices for a piece that Shona Joy and Kivari make well for less. Sizing is generous by design, which we explain in the Alémais size guide, and the current edit is in the best Alémais dresses.

Frequently asked questions

Is Alémais a luxury brand?

Alémais is an advanced contemporary label rather than a luxury house. Dresses sit between AUD 490 and AUD 1,300, a tee is AUD 220 and the most embellished pieces reach AUD 1,600. On Luxury Handbags most Alémais styles land between $415 and $865, with a median of $690. It is stocked by Liberty, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and Bloomingdale’s, which places it on the same floors as luxury, at well under half the price of Zimmermann.

Why is Alémais so expensive?

Because almost everything on an Alémais piece is made from scratch. The prints are original artworks commissioned from named artists, the embroidery and beading are done by hand in artisan communities, the cloth is European flax linen, silk and organic cotton, and the brand plants a tree for every garment sold. Those costs sit in the price. What you are not paying for is a logo.

Who owns Alémais?

Alémais was co-founded in Sydney by designer Lesleigh Jermanus, who is its creative director, and her husband Chris Buchanan. It launched in 2020 and remains an independent brand rather than part of a fashion group.

Why is Alémais so popular?

Three reasons. The prints are hand-drawn and change every season, so no two drops look alike. The cuts are relaxed and forgiving, mostly linen and silk shirtdresses, midi dresses and wide trousers that work from a beach to a wedding. And the brand’s impact reporting is unusually specific, which matters to the customer who buys colour but wants to know where it came from.

Is Alémais sustainable?

Alémais publishes an impact report covering 2021 to 2024. In 2024, 75% of its materials by weight were from its preferred list, synthetics were under 5% of fibre use, 72% of its cotton was organic and 85% of its linen was European flax. It plants a tree for every garment sold and has funded more than 600,000 trees. It does not claim B Corp certification.

Is Alémais worth the money?

If you want a print nobody else is wearing, cut in natural fibres that last, yes. If you want a plain linen dress, you are paying for artwork you are not using, and a label like Shona Joy will do it for less. The pieces that hold their value best are the embroidered and beaded styles, which are made in small numbers.