Finland picked as guest nation at Pitti Uomo 93

By

Dominique Muret

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Sep 7, 2017

After South Korea, Africa, the Ukraine, Turkey, Denmark and Australia, it is now the turn of Finland to enjoy star billing in Florence: the Scandinavian country has been chosen as guest nation at the next Pitti Uomo, scheduled on 9th-12th January 2018. Raffaello Napoleone, boss of the benchmark menswear show, emphasised that "Finland is about to become one of the most dynamic hubs for fashion creativity."

 
The guest nation project is sponsored by Pitti Immagine Discovery, the foundation belonging to show organiser Pitti Immagine, which has chosen eight labels and emerging designers for the Florentine showcase.
 
Some of them already have a European reputation, like Rolf Ekroth, 31, a finalist at the 2016 Hyères fashion festival, who designed a capsule collection for Galeries Lafayette which is available in September at the French department store.

Or Heikki Salonen, the 2008 winner of the ITS young designer competition in Trieste, who has notably worked for Diesel and Erdem, and collaborates with Maison Margiela since 2013. At Pitti Uomo, Salonen will present his Vyber Articles line.

Teemu Muurimäki has worked in Milan, for Dolce & Gabbana, Bottega Veneta and Giorgio Armani, and is one of the founders and the designer of emerging sustainable Finnish label Formal Friday.

Some of the other designers selected are instead less known, like Colombian-born Julia Männistö, who launched her Mannisto menswear label in 2015 and was short-listed for the LVMH Prize in 2016, or are outright rookies, like minimalist label Nomen Nescio, launched in 2012 by Timo ja Niina Leskelä, or footwear label Saint Vacant by Janne Lax.

Also part of the project are two household names in Finnish fashion, Turo and R-Collection, which will present capsule collections created by two young designers: Ikla Wright for Turo and Maria Korkeila, 24, for R-Collection. The latter caught the critics' eye last April at the 2017 Hyères fashion festival's competition, where she was awarded a special mention for her remarkable creativity and manual skill.