For a long time, Finnish fashion has been associated with one name: Marimekko. But, happily, that’s now changing thanks to a new crop of designers that have emerged in recent years, from 2022 Hyères Grand Prize winner Jenny Hytönen to former Galeries Lafayette Prize winner Rolf Ekroth.
This year’s Fashion in Helsinki event highlighted the buzz around Finnish designers right now, with both Hytönen and Ekroth taking part in a joint runway show at the city’s shipyard alongside Sofia Ilmonen, Hedvig, and Vain. “We felt there wasn’t a platform for new brands, for the next thing from Finland,” Martta Louekari, co-organizer of Fashion in Helsinki and communications director at Juni, tells Vogue. “It’s also important that the Finns themselves see what is [happening] here.”
Indeed, Finnish brands have typically left their home country in order to find success, with the likes of Ekroth, Vain, and Latimmier all showing at Copenhagen Fashion Week in recent seasons. It’s why Fashion in Helsinki isn’t a traditional Fashion Week but rather a showcase for local brands. (Most designers presented collections they had previously shown elsewhere during the three-day event.) “When we started, we thought there’s no point for us to try to compete with other Fashion Weeks,” Louekari continues. “We’re never going to have the resources for that.”
Instead, the focus is on highlighting creativity and the processes behind the designers’ creations while having fun doing it. Case in point: Ervin Latimer’s alter ego, Anna Conda, hosted a drag bingo night for international guests on Thursday night. “Fashion Weeks tend to be quite serious—I couldn’t imagine this on the official schedule anywhere else,” explains Latimer, whose brand Latimmier looks at the performance of masculinity via clothing. “But [the drag performance] also directly connects to where I come from, where the brand comes from, our approach to gender.”
Sustainability is also a key priority for young brands in Helsinki, with Vain using deadstock to produce its goth-infused designs. “It’s always been a big part of our DNA,” cofounder Jimi Vain explains. “I started sewing by buying pieces from thrift shops and making my own silhouettes.” Meanwhile, Sofia Ilmonen, winner of the Hyères Sustainability Award in 2021, has partnered with Spinnova—a Finnish company that produces textiles from sustainably sourced wood pulp and waste—to create her modular designs, featuring panels that are buttoned together and can be easily modified. “The whole idea when I started is how to lengthen a garment’s life,” the designer says.
Beyond the environmental impact of producing garments, there’s an emphasis on promoting craftsmanship too. Ekroth’s knitwear, for example, is made in Finland, while customers can buy DIY kits to knit one of the brand’s autumn-winter 2024 designs later this year. “We produce as locally as possible,” he explains, adding: “I’ve learned a lot about the knitting community. They’re super supportive and want to try out new things.”
This slow approach to fashion is also championed by Hytönen, whose sheer knit dresses and separates—seen via a recent collaboration with AZ Factory—are embellished with everything from metal studs and beads to needles. “Everything I do is very precise and thought out,” she says. “I try to do things I truly believe in.”
Like many of her peers, Hytönen credits the prestigious fashion program at Aalto University—which went from strength to strength under the leadership of Tuomas Laitinen, now at Parsons Paris—for her success. All the designers who took part in this year’s Helsinki in Fashion showcase, bar Vain, are alumni of the Finnish fashion school, which bodes well for the winner of this year’s top graduate prize, Petra Lehtinen. “Everything started with the school becoming so renowned,” says Sofia Järnefelt, cofounder of Hedvig, pointing to the number of Aalto graduates currently working at major fashion brands. “It’s been a long process, and now you can enjoy the fruits of it.”
It’s clear that the future is bright for Finnish fashion brands—although you’re unlikely to hear them shouting about it. “We have so many talented designers here, but Finnish people don’t like to make noise about themselves,” Vain says. Still, they’re more than happy to support each other in taking on the global fashion industry. “It feels like if someone succeeds, it’s for all of us,” Ilmonen concludes. “We’re pushing Finland forward.”