If Rolf Ekroth’s fall 2025 show was a “last lap of some kind”—a nod to the uncertain landscape many designers are reckoning with at the moment—this season’s return show, set in woodland on the outskirts of Copenhagen, was fittingly entitled Encore. “I basically wanted to give myself a second chance to correct the mistakes I made in the past, and expand on things that have worked,” Ekroth said in a preview.
It’s unusual to hear a designer speak in such a self-critical manner, but Ekroth is explicitly business-minded in his approach. Outerwear is a strong category for the Finnish brand, and this season there was plenty of it: utilitarian bomber jackets, track tops with an abundance of pockets, blazers in mixed fabrics. Prints, another key signature for the label, featured heavily, from tulips (an update on the rose motif of spring 2024) to polka dots.
This was by no means a greatest hits collection, though. Ekroth is clear about the need to continue pushing boundaries because “that’s where you still get the energy [from]”. Cases in point: a top comprising a thousand pins, designed to form a flame motif (“it’s very ASMR”), and padded T-shirts that tied up at the sleeves, designed—no doubt—with Scandinavian summers in mind.
For spring 2026, the designer worked with a new stylist, former Aalto University classmate Emma Saarnio, who did a good job in bringing together a multitude of ideas, old and new (including five looks upcycled from discarded textiles, sourced from a Finnish waste management company) in a cohesive manner. “For some reason, I’ve never been more confident in a collection’s direction than this one,” Ekroth said. “I just focused on what I liked the most and hopefully pushed those forward.” The enthusiastic applause from the large crowd that turned out for the designer’s encore—some standing five rows back—suggested he succeeded in just that.