Fashion Meets Art in Helsinki – Emerging Finnish Designers Take Center Stage at Fashion in Helsinki 2025
Fashion in Helsinki, the preeminent platform for emerging talent in Finnish fashion, returns this May with a program highlighting the conceptual vigor of Finnish designers.
This year’s edition of Fashion in Helsinki (FiH) is dedicated to the boundary-pushing practices of Finnish designers. Taking place from May 21-24, FiH brings together young designers, established brands, and art & design institutions throughout the city to explore the blurry edges between fashion and art. Showcasing talent through runway shows, exhibitions, showrooms, the Aalto University graduate show and exhibition and a Finnish fashion awards ceremony, FiH situates Finland as a cradle for the future of fashion.
Martta Louekari, Communication Director of Fashion in Helsinki says: “From designer Juha Vehmaanperä getting crazy with Finnish knitting tradition and heritage brand Kalevala Jewelry working with wearable sculptures for almost 90 years to Ervin Latimer designing outfits for a performance at this year’s Venice Biennale of Architecture and award winning Tuuli-Tytti Koivula creating prints for Italian and French luxury brands, Finnish designers consistently push the boundaries of fashion and art. Finnish fashion means quality over quantity. It is a celebration of freedom and free style.”
From the Runway to the Museum
FiH kicks off on Wednesday, May 21 with the curated fashion show of the upcoming designers and new brands at the iconic 1970s brutalist residential development Merihaka. This year’s runway show showcases Latimmier, Rolf Ekroth, Sini Saavala, Linda Kokkonen and Hedvig.
Taking a cue from this edition’s curatorial focus on fashion as an art, many of the week’s events are set take place at museums throughout the city. Amos Rex, the popular contemporary art museum in the heart of Helsinki, will be the main venue of Fashion in Helsinki. On Friday, the museum will host “Amos Rex SS25,” a presentation and shop by creative director Minttu Vesala featuring looks from the collections of over 50 young Finnish designers. The designers selected for Amos Rex SS25 emphasise the range of Finnish designers working today, in terms of artistic identity, material and conceptual inquiry.
Kieran Long, director of Amos Rex, says: “Fashion is one of the most important contemporary artistic fields, one that merges and synthesises popular culture, artistic expression and identity. We are proud to be working with Minttu Vesala on what we hope will become an important event for the Helsinki fashion scene. We are so happy to have the work of the designers she has selected showing in the iconic courtyard at our home at Lasipalatsi. We are also proud to be a part of Fashion in Helsinki and look forward to many more years of presenting the artistry of fashion at Amos Rex.”
Amos Rex is a museum that reflects on contemporary identities, senses of self and community—these questions will be further explored in the museum’s courtyard, where the British-Nigerian artist Yinka Ilori will debut a public installation transforming the Amos Rex’s iconic mounds into a participatory artwork that allow visitors to play and interact with the public realm in new ways.
Also part of the official programme is the “Social Fabric” exhibition at EMMA (Museum of Modern Art Espoo), which explores the ways that fashion is part of our lives and speaks to our cultures and values, and at the Architecture and Design Museum, a presentation of Sofia Ilmonen.
Examples of Finnish Brands Working at the Intersection of Fashion and Art
Juha Vehmaanperä, photo: Isabel Pantzel
Juha Vehmaanperä, the Craftiest Bitch in Town
juhavehmaanpera.com
Finland has a strong history in knitted items and woven textiles. Juha Vehmaanperä is a Helsinki-based fashion and knitwear designer and educator focusing on art, design and craftsmanship from an open-source queer perspective. Employing slow fashion practices and queer theory, Vehmaanperä engages in projects combining traditional craft techniques with a modern approach and technologies. A recent project of Vehmaanperä’s combined two DIY methods of 3D printing and handcraft into an open-source craft instruction booklet. Handmade in Helsinki, the booklet showcased the methods of making the collection “Do Machines Dream of Handknit Mittens?”
Latimmier, photo: Anton Tammi
Latimmier Questions the Ends of Masculinity
latimmier.com
Designer, professor of practice Ervin Latimer’s brand Latimmier works with performance of masculinity. Latimer´s story is rooted in the queer legacy of cross dressing, and in the dissection of historically masculine silhouettes and materials with a contemporary approach. The collection is a continuation of costume design created for the Venice Architecture Bienniale Nordic Pavilion Exhibition, Industry Muscle: Five Scores of Architecture by performance artist Teo Ala-Ruona.
RAKAS Rolf Ekroth x Kalevala, photo: Kalevala
Kalevala Jewelry wearable sculptures
Kalevala.fi
Helsinki-based heritage brand, Kalevala, has explored the idea of wearable sculptures for almost 90 years. Kalevala has been working over the years with some of the most iconic Finnish artists and designers, including sculptor Björn Weckström, jewelry designer Ildar Wafin, fashion designer Rolf Ekroth and design studio Juslin Maunula. Planetoid valleys and Darina’s Bracelet, designed by Björn Weckström at the end of the 1960s, are the most internationally known Finnish jewelry. These unique, sculpture-like jewelry rose to international fame in 1977, when Princess Leia wore them in Star Wars. All Kalevala jewelry is handmade in Helsinki, Finland using recycled precious metals.
Tuuli-Tytti Koivula, photo: James Cochrane
Tuuli-Tytti Koivula’s Playful Universe
tuuli-tytti.com
Award winning fashion and print designer Tuuli-Tytti Koivula has gained experience in international high-end fashion houses, such as Prada in Milan, Raf Simons in Antwerp and Courrèges in Paris. Koivula’s universe is full of adventurous storytellers and playful aesthetics. Koivula’s clever usage of colors, experimental volumes and extreme focus on details bring joy and happiness to wearers.
More information & press images:
Leena Karppinen
Senior Manager, PR & Communications
Helsinki Partners
leena.karppinen@helsinkipartners.com
Fashion In Helsinki Partnerships
Fashion in Helsinki is organised by Juni Communication. The event is supported by Helsinki Partners and The Ministry of Education and Culture. The additional partners for this year’s edition are Amos Rex, EMMA Museum, Marimekko, Kalevala, Scandinavian Mind, Zalando, Aalto University, KAUTE Foundation’s Laura and Aarne Karjalainen Special Fund, LAB Institute of Design and Fine Arts, Stockmann, 1664 Blanc, Authentic Beauty Concept and Hotel St George.
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