Shortly before presenting her latest collection at Paris Fashion Week, Ellen Hodakova Larsson won the prestigious LVMH Prize. Coupled with an increase in appearances at red carpet events (see: Cate Blanchett’s 102 Spoons), this means there’s more interest than ever in the young Swede’s work. Her Spring 2025 proposal answers the question: “Can these old riding boots be transformed into evening gowns?”
Larson has a knack for manipulating deadstock subtly and sometimes exaggeratedly. Saoirse Ronan was spotted last night at a screening of her new film Outrun, in which she plays a volunteer for the RSPB working for recovering alcoholics on a remote Scottish island. (The tartan lining was turned into a halterneck style, while the main body of the jacket hung loose at the hem.) She was perhaps the only woman to make the Balmoral aesthetic modern.
Barbour recently collaborated with Alexa Chung, and inviting Larsson into her world is the best. The 32-year-old, who spent her childhood on a horse farm near Strängnäs, bases her fashion approach on the rural values she grew up with: make do and improvise. (Hodakova tweed jackets have built-in shirt sleeves for a casual, neck-tied look, while monogrammed dishcloths and traditional argyle sweaters have been transformed into calf-length skirts.) “And new ways of thinking,” the designer once said, “are what bring about change in the system. If you buy a double shirt dress from Hodakova, it’s like saying: ‘OK’ to a new kind of structure. It’s not just the clothes.
