For spring/summer '25, Eytys turns to the dusty landscape of Dakar to develop a collection that’s perfectly suited to Swedish not-so-summer
For spring/summer '25, Eytys creative director Max Schiller cast his gaze – as he often does – to a far-off land. Namely, The Dakar (formerly known as the Paris-Dakar Rally) which finds all manners of aristocrats and rich kids participating in a very long car race just for the hell of it. “They were so rich and so bored, they have to take on the most expensive, crazy plan there ever is,” says Schiller, who first became interested in the event by way of Netflix hit The Crown (in 1982, Margaret Thatcher’s son Mark Thatcher went missing in Dakar whilst participating in the race).
Though the race still exists (these days it’s held solely in Saudi Arabia), Schiller is most interested in the original Paris to Dakar route, which found participants starting at Place Vendôme looking sharp and put together and, weeks later, finding themselves all sandy and dishevelled, driving through rough and sandy terrain in North Africa. “And then there’s the sun, the beautiful light and sunsets,” says Schiller, who got so into his research he took his whole family to Morocco over Easter.
The result is perfectly beat up, relaxed, low-crotch jeans, colour-blocked Moto-friendly leather jackets and, most literally, screen-printed race jerseys. Elsewhere, dusty yellow desert boots and a brand new sneaker that finds its flat-footed inspo in a classic car shoe. The muted pinks, olive greens and gentle beiges read very sand. This is not Yves Saint Laurent’s chic Morocco but something much grittier, much dirtier.
But there’s a no-fuss practicality to the clothes that’s rooted in something much closer to home. “I decided very early on that I wanted the collection to be from and for Stockholm,” says Schiller, who describes the collection as “relatable”. Namely, that means designing a spring/summer collection that reflects Stockholm not-so-spring-summer weather. Most of us wear leather jackets and jeans right through to the fall, save for a week or two here or there (don’t worry, Schiller threw in a couple of slip dresses). “So that was the starting point,” he says. “But I still needed to daydream.”
As for whether Schiller himself would ever participate in The Dakar… That’s an emphatic “no”. “I absolutely dread driving far,” he says. “I take on a challenge twice a year – once in Christmas once in summer – to drive to my father-in-law’s house outside of Nyköping. It’s an hour and I hate it.”
See the full Eytys SS25 collection below.
