Hodakova - AW25

This season, Hodakova faced the music – literally. The Swedish brand’s autumn/winter '25 collection found a tambourine reimagined as a skirt, a double bass converted into a dress (a poetic moment that somewhat inverted Man Ray’s iconic image of a woman as a violin) and strings woven into a cage-like frock. Speaking of violins, one popped up atop a model’s head – a personal note given that designer Ellen Hodakova Larsson played the instrument as a child.

The collection, which was presented at the historic Maison de la Mutualité, explored the contrasting notions of freedom and restriction; a symphony of looks that either caged and concealed the body or offered a freewheeling liberation. “In life, we navigate between periods when we are in need of restriction and then times where we crave freedom,” says Hodakova Larsson. “We need both – the idea of ease and release, and how you can find stripped down vulnerability intertwined within your own resilience.”On the side of total freedom, lace bodysuits and second skin leather give way to some of the sexiest looks ever seen on a Hodakova runway.

As ever, the collection was also about materials, reimagined through the designer’s lens. Vintage fur hats became a fuzzy, ankle-length dress or a sensuous cropped coat. Leather belts, a Hodakova favourite, trail from straight skirts and dresses or snake around the body in off-the-shoulder looks that appear as massive upside-down trousers. The looks are grounded by sturdy leather boots and brogues, handcrafted by Sergio Rossi.

As with any orchestra, the magic comes not from any single moment but when all components come together – an unexpected crescendo in which a sum of parts (in this case, Hodakova’s found objects and vintage materials, remixed into something unexpected) becomes something more.

Related: For AW25, Acne Studios mashed up officecore with the archipelago

See the Hodakova AW25 collection in full below.