Social worker, professional poker player, casino employee… Rolf Ekroth’s road to fashion was a winding one. Once he had set his course on design, he went in the direction of menswear with a technical sports aspect before introducing womenswear. Over time, his course veered farther from a clear sports focus and closer to rustic influences, intensive handcraft, and print. All of these elements were present in his spring 2025 collection. See: the aprons over pants and the dandelion jeans, the latter of which feature 250 handmade and applied pendants that required over hours of work to make.) Yet what this show, the third of a trio supported by CPHFW’s NewTalent program, seemed to reveal was that the most distinctive trait of Ekroth’s work is not something you can point a finger at, but rather his identity as a Finn.
All of the designer’s work iterates on this theme, but his choice of traditional Finnish songs really emphasized the point this season. Then there was the title, Lavatanssit (which refers to Finnish dance pavilions in the countryside where “everyone is in search of a dream, from wallflowers to nighttime legends. While Finnish people may appear stoic, beneath their reserve burns a blend of romance and melancholy.” It was not difficult to see the sunlight and shadow in the collection, but it wasn’t left at that, rather Ekroth added to the plot the idea of hukkumisbingo (drowning bingo), “a game where bets are placed on how many drunken people end up lost in the lake each summer.” Learning this, the life vest-inspired toppers and the print-covered lifesaver seemed much less whimsical than at first glance. Yet another Finnish word/concept to enter the equation was rakas (love)—a frisky kind of love, at least when it came to the T-shirt with flowers and nipple rings at the breasts. Septum-ring-like piercings (round like life preservers) appeared as hardware throughout the lineup; oddly they didn’t read as punk.
Somehow the circle didn’t close with this collection. When Ekroth made his debut at Pitti Uomo in 2019, the collection was much more sports focused. In this Olympics year it would have been timely to build out this offering beyond the very attractive windbreakers and the Puma Speedcats that were on show. Two-tone sweats worn with a hoodie and roomy cardigan were a felicitous combination of athleisure and grunge. Patch-kneed pants shown with a grandpa cardigan looked at once naive and grandad, a quite intriguing narrative combination.
