Not long before presenting her latest collection at Paris Fashion Week, Ellen Hodakova Larsson won the prestigious LVMH Prize. This, combined with an increased presence at red-carpet events–see: Cate Blanchett’s 102 spoons–meant that there was greater interest in this young Swede’s work than ever before. Her spring 2025 proposal answered the question: “Can these old riding boots be made into an evening dress?” with an emphatic: “Yes.”
A smart and at times surreal manipulation of deadstock is Larsson’s thing. Last night, Saoirse Ronan was photographed at a screening of her new film, Outrun—in which she plays a recovering alcoholic volunteering for the RSPB on a remote Scottish archipelago–in Jimmy Choo pumps and a wax jacket-turned-gown that first appeared in the designer’s fall 2024 collection. (The tartan lining had been transformed into a halter-neck while the body of the jacket itself had been suspended at the hem.) She is perhaps the only person to have ever made the Balmoral aesthetic look modern.
Barbour–who most recently collaborated with Alexa Chung–would do well to invite Larsson into its world. The 32-year-old spent her childhood on a horse farm near Strängnäs, and her approach to fashion is based on the countryside values she grew up with: making do and mending. (A Hodakova tweed jacket comes with built-in shirt sleeves to give a casual tied-around-the-neck-look, while monogrammed dishcloths and traditional argyle sweaters are fashioned into shin-length skirts.) “It’s about being curious for something new and new ways to think,” the designer once said. “That’s what brings change to the system. If you’re buying a double shirt dress from Hodakova, it’s like saying, ‘Okay’ to a new type of structure, and I believe that is a bigger thing than just being about clothes.”
