Dear Shaded Viewers,
Ellen Hodakova Larsson’s journey from her LVMH Prize-winning breakthrough to this season’s daring “Conventional Collection 112509” finds its apex in the sculptural halls of the Portzamparc Wing at Musée Bourdelle on September 29, 2025. When she won the LVMH Prize in 2024, Larsson was an emerging Scandinavian disruptor, recognized for transforming unlikely, often sentimental relics—belt buckles, silver spoons, trays—into garments with a mischievous, story-rich spirit. Her artistic approach honored both nostalgia and subversion, merging playful ornament with a sustainability ethic that was as poetic as it was radical.
A year later, the mood is both deeply reflective and audaciously new. As dusk fell at the Musée Bourdelle, silhouettes descended the stairs with ribs of steel and angular forms constructed from thousands of umbrella bones, headpieces, and dramatic dresses that echoed the contours of armor and sculpture. Zippers became not just closures but allegories, interpreted as capes, cast as biblical hair, rising to crown the models—gravity made visible. Hodakova’s folklore references, once embroidered as tiny blooms, are here dismantled and revived, their fragments reassembled using the methodology of 1960s Assemblage: every lost object, every linen sheet, pillow, glove, and thatched straw is folded, pressed, and mourned into substance.
The garments themselves speak in the dialect of everyday labor and memory. Dresses were weighed down with old books, dresses that “read as they walk,” inviting the narrative of a life—a tale traced in linen and housewares, in gestures echoing Sweden’s vernacular traditions, such as the Lovikavantar gloves born of hardship and ingenuity. This season, Hodakova’s mastery of repurposing waste and relic collapses fashion and sculpture, making “an Assemblage of Archeologies” that honors lived experience, folklore, and the temporality of objects. In collaboration with the Swedish Thatching Association, Larsson’s final looks incorporated straw architecture, pushing the boundaries of wearability and craft.
The introduction of footwear marks a significant milestone—boots, pumps, monk shoes, and lederhosen shoes constructed from overstock leather, grounded by Renaissance-inspired wooden heels and adorned with decorative buttons. Bags, too, take on the narrative: riding boots reborn with zipper flower appliqués, making them as much artifact as accessory. This expansion of Hodakova’s vocabulary signals the brand’s new scale and ambition, as once “rather artsy” upcycling is now transformed into an appointment-viewing spectacle for Paris’s most discerning crowd.
Creative Direction – Ellen Hodakova Larsson
Styling – Lotta Volkova
Casting – Julia Lange Casting
Make up – Thomas de Kluyver
Hair – Holli Smith
Styling Assistant – Toariki Dexter
Choreography – Eric Christison
Music – Hampus Lindwall, Baba Stilz
Production – Villa Eugénie
Suiting from Cavalier. Shirts from ETON. Make Up by BYREDO
Hodakova is supported by the Swedish Fashion Council.
With a Special Thank You to
Musée Paris, Musée Bourdelle, Christian de Portzamparc; 2Portzamparc, Dacapo, and
Paul Frankenius, Jörgen Andersson and Etienne Russo.
Later,
Diane
