Social employee, skilled poker participant, on line casino worker… Rolf Ekroth’s highway to trend was a winding one. As soon as he had set his course on design, he went within the path of menswear with a technical sports activities side earlier than introducing womenswear. Over time, his course veered farther from a transparent sports activities focus and nearer to rustic influences, intensive handcraft, and print. All of those components have been current in his spring 2025 assortment. See: the aprons over pants and the dandelion denims, the latter of which function 250 handmade and utilized pendants that required over hours of labor to make.) But what this present, the third of a trio supported by CPHFW’s NewTalent program, appeared to disclose was that probably the most distinctive trait of Ekroth’s work just isn’t one thing you possibly can level a finger at, however somewhat his identification as a Finn.
All the designer’s work iterates on this theme, however his selection of conventional Finnish songs actually emphasised the purpose this season. Then there was the title, Lavatanssit (which refers to Finnish dance pavilions within the countryside the place “everyone seems to be looking for a dream, from wallflowers to nighttime legends. Whereas Finnish folks could seem stoic, beneath their reserve burns a mix of romance and melancholy.” It was not troublesome to see the daylight and shadow within the assortment, but it surely wasn’t left at that, somewhat Ekroth added to the plot the concept of hukkumisbingo (drowning bingo), “a sport the place bets are positioned on what number of drunken folks find yourself misplaced within the lake every summer season.” Studying this, the life vest-inspired toppers and the print-covered lifesaver appeared a lot much less whimsical than at first look. One more Finnish phrase/idea to enter the equation was rakas (love)—a frisky sort of love, a minimum of when it got here to the T-shirt with flowers and nipple rings on the breasts. Septum-ring-like piercings (spherical like life preservers) appeared as {hardware} all through the lineup; oddly they didn’t learn as punk.
In some way the circle didn’t shut with this assortment. When Ekroth made his debut at Pitti Uomo in 2019, the gathering was far more sports activities targeted. On this Olympics 12 months it might have been well timed to construct out this providing past the very engaging windbreakers and the Puma Speedcats that have been on present. Two-tone sweats worn with a hoodie and roomy cardigan have been a felicitous mixture of athleisure and grunge. Patch-kneed pants proven with a grandpa cardigan checked out as soon as naive and grandad, a fairly intriguing narrative mixture.
