Stockholm Fashion Week returned on 2 June for a three-day run that followed a six-year pause, spotlighting the new generation of Swedish designers who are redefining Scandi design.
The Swedish capital was alive with energy throughout the week as students celebrated their graduations, luxury lovers visited Cartier’s new high jewellery exhibition and locals soaked up some early summer sun ahead of the long weekend celebrating the National Day of Sweden. The fashion week schedule itself was relatively lean, with 12 shows, three presentations and a handful of panel talks and drink events. The timing of the week meant that brands showed a mixture of seasons: Autumn/Winter 2025, pre-spring 2026 and SS26. Around 30 international guests attended, with press and buyers flying in from the UK, the US, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Italy, France, Norway and the Netherlands, among others.
Stockholm Fashion Week hit the headlines in 2019 when the Swedish Fashion Council (SFC) announced it was cancelling the event, citing sustainability concerns. Over the past few years, SFC has focused instead on its incubation platform, Fashion X. Meanwhile, member-owned trade organisation Association of Swedish Fashion Brands (ASFB), which claims to have set up Stockholm Fashion Week in 2005 — though the SFC contests this — says it was cancelled primarily for financial reasons. ASFB trialled a fresh hybrid format for fashion week in 2022, amid pandemic restrictions, but this was discontinued after one season.
The relaunch — which has been in the making since the 2022 edition — has been orchestrated by ASFB under the leadership of director John-Jamal Gille, a former writer, creative director and photographer. The major difference is that Stockholm Fashion Week now has government funding, which could be a game changer for bumping the event onto the global fashion map.
Scandi fashion has already made a name for itself thanks to Copenhagen Fashion Week, which has become popular for its quirky, contemporary and commercially oriented brands with a focus on sustainability. However, Stockholm fashion locals speaking to Vogue Business insist that their home town is the centre of Scandi luxury, pointing out that Sweden is a bigger economy and has the largest number of fashion exports in Scandinavia.
Here are the key takeaways from Stockholm Fashion Week’s relaunch.
Bigger names are keeping a watching brief
Sweden has birthed brands including Acne Studios, Toteme, Axel Arigato, Our Legacy, H&M, Tiger of Sweden, Avavav, Hodakova, Filippa K, Nudie Jeans, Swedish Stockings — the list goes on. However, while Swedish Stockings hosted a lunch during this edition of fashion week, none of these big names held on-schedule shows or presentations. (Though some had input into how the event was organised, as members of the ASFB.) Instead, the schedule featured a mix of mid-sized labels like Studio Constance and Deadwood, buzzy newcomers and underground subcultural labels.
“They really held our hand along the way,” says Mayssa Fakih, co-founder of one-year-old brand Mayz, whose show received positive response from attendees. “It’s exciting to see emerging brands like ourselves on the schedule, because when you’re fresh in the game, your creativity is also fresh.” International guests were particularly impressed by the student collections from Beckmans College of Design and Borås School of Textiles, which were presented in a showroom hosted at church-turned-event-space Eric Ericsonhallen.
Mayz was founded in 2024 by American artist Mayssa Fakih and Swedish designer Kevin Mukuri.
Photo: Courtesy of Mayz