Get to know Aalto's brightest future fashion stars

Aalto University is an esteemed launchpad for some of the very best fashion talents, fostering some of the most innovative designers to come out of the Nordic region.

Actively encouraging new interpretations with materials, forms and concepts within fashion, Aalto has inevitably become a compelling creative community comprised of the aspiring designers within its walls.

Here, Vogue Scandinavia spotlights the work of five Aalto MA Graduates, Petra Lehtinen, Iris Kareoja, Enni Lähderinne, Nana Lybeck and Apollo de Costa Dória. Photographed by Angela Djekic and styled by Nikke Hellström, this is a celebration of Finland's future fashion stars.

Petra Lehtinen’s graduate collection, “av yv” – Finnish shorthand translating to “preliminary reservations, direct message” – challenges the boundaries of consumption and memory in fashion. Inspired by personal storage habits, the collection breathes new life into garments often relegated to forgotten archives. By recontextualising these pieces as valuable archives rather than clutter, Lehtinen transforms them into a poignant narrative of our relationship with clothing in an age of mass consumption.

Drawing from her own experiences of storing items in vacuum-sealed bags, Lehtinen explains: “Despite my intention to sell or repurpose, these garments lingered. This collection captures the complex attachment consumers, including myself, have with clothing.” The absurdity of contemporary consumption culture, documented through the lens of Nouveau Réalisme and Duchampian readymades, inspired the use of pre-existing materials, including garments sealed in vacuum bags.

By prioritising creativity over material sourcing, Lehtinen highlights the untapped potential in overlooked objects – reminding us that every archive holds a story worth telling.

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Iris Kareoja’s graduate collection redefines the design process, treating fashion as a curated meditation on existing imagery rather than an exercise in novelty. “I see clothes as ready-mades, endlessly reproduced until their original context is lost,” she explains.

The collection explores the power of (re)production and its interplay with social reality, taste, and cultural expression. Kareoja examines the designer’s role as a mediator of meaning, building on the concept of an artwork as a shared, evolving entity. Inspired by Hans Eijkelboom’s street photography, she delves into fashion’s dual role as a marker of distinction and group identity.

The collection combines seemingly inconsistent yet familiar sartorial references, creating a dialogue around perception. “I wanted to study how print can strip something of its functional properties while still conveying recognizable visuals,” Kareoja reflects.

Through her introspective approach, Kareoja reshapes how we understand design’s role in culture.

Drawing from her experiences wearing medical braces during her youth, Enni Lähderinne’s graduate collection explores the deep, embodied connection between garments and their wearers. Her designs visualise this synergy, revealing how clothes shape, and are shaped by, the body and its movements.

At the heart of her work is a zero-waste pattern system developed during her master’s studies, emphasizing the interplay between form and fabric. “Each garment captures the body’s touch, leaving a fleeting but indelible imprint,” Lähderinne explains. Her fascination with this tactile memory inspired her to craft pieces that transform garments into vessels of personal experience. Lähderinne’s knitwear, made from monofilament, challenges traditional ideas of softness while harmonising seamlessly with the body. Inspired by the imprints left by medical braces, her designs merge denim and knitwear into a delicate armor, extending the boundaries of the body. “Clothing reflects identity while serving as a canvas upon which it is molded,” she notes.

A deeply personal touch is seen in garment-sized jewellery, co-designed with her father, who also has Scheuermann’s disease. “This collaboration encapsulates our shared journey, transforming our experiences into something empowering,” Lähderinne shares. Her collection redefines fashion as a medium of self-awareness, resilience, and reclaimed narratives.

Nana Lybeck’s graduate collection examines the intersection of radical body modification and artistic mutilation, transforming wearable ensembles into evocative explorations of sensation and atmosphere. Balancing the grotesque and the delicate, violent and gentle, the collection reflects the nuanced nature of body modification subcultures and their parallels in fashion.

Lybeck uses animalistic materials, constricting silhouettes, and heavy, burdensome garments to evoke a sense of controlled violence. This dynamic positions the wearer as both participant and observer, interacting with the garments in ways that feel visceral and personal. Despite its strikingly macabre aesthetic, the collection maintains a fragile, almost serene sensibility, mirroring the complex beauty of radical body modification.

“I approach these garments as bodies themselves, embedding discomfort and pain into their forms,” Lybeck explains. Using a somatic design approach, they prioritize physical interaction over traditional patterning or sketching. Each garment is shaped through tactile exploration of weight, tension, and material resilience. “It’s physical work—feeling how clothes pull, squeeze, or drag until they tear – or tear you.”

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For Apollo da Costa Dória, creating a fashion collection without prototypes is not just a departure from traditional design – it’s a philosophy. The process itself, filled with exploration and intuition, holds more value than the final product. “There is no final destination,” they explain. For da Costa Dória, it’s the journey that matters, where the adrenaline and joy lie, rather than the end result.

Drawing inspiration from life’s raw reality, they believe that we carry the essence of time with us – our memories, scars, and the ever-present influence of the past. “In real life, there is no prototype,” they note. Just like the studded leather jackets, ripped jeans, and grandpa’s old army boots worn in -30°C winters in Jyväskylä, their designs reflect a refusal to conform to society’s restrictive norms. Punk, in all its rawness and rebellion, has always been a cornerstone of their identity – an inclusive, boundaryless space where gender, ethnicity, or sexuality are irrelevant.

Much like a musician composing a song, da Costa Dória approaches design with an emotional, sensory-driven process. Their work draws from poetry, song lyrics, and the DIY philosophy, with sustainability at the forefront. Texture becomes a pattern, and each piece is timeless, designed to last while evoking a deep, sentimental connection to the wearer. “Think less – do more,” they say. In their world, there are no mistakes – just endless possibilities.