Finnish designer Rolf Ekroth made his Paris Fashion Week debut on Friday with a Spring-Summer 2027 collection that drew unexpected parallels between pick-and-mix candy, technical outerwear, and the long Nordic twilight. The show, held at a former printing works in the 11th arrondissement, marked the arrival of a distinctive new voice on the international menswear calendar.
Ekroth’s design language merges Scandinavian pragmatism with a whimsical sensibility rarely seen in the region’s fashion output. The collection featured parkas constructed from recycled sailcloth, hand-knitted sweaters in patterns inspired by vintage Finnish candy wrappers, and wide trousers cut from a nylon-cotton blend developed specifically for the collection over 18 months.
Outerwear was the strongest category. A reversible shell jacket, one side in high-visibility orange and the other in camouflage, captured the collection’s dual nature: protective and expressive. A hooded cape in waxed cotton felt both ancient and futuristic, like something a Finnish fisherman might have worn, redesigned for the climate-changed present.
Ekroth’s path to Paris runs through the Hyères Festival, where he was a finalist in 2024. His debut on the official calendar was supported by the Finnish Fashion Council and a grant from the Nordic Culture Fund, signaling institutional confidence in his potential to represent a new generation of Scandinavian design.
