With the first collection of HJRT, Roland Hjort, best known for cult brand Whyred, creates instantly covetable, keep-in-your-wardrobe-forever pieces
“Have you heard Roland Hjort has started a new brand?” It’s a sentence I’ve encountered among Stockholm fashion crowds on several occasions over the past week or so. HJRT came as if from nowhere, fully formed with a lookbook, poetically-written press release and a handful of items up for grabs on an aesthetically pleasing website. For Hjort, however, this was hardly a spontaneous act. “It took quite a long time, because we had the pandemic,” says Hjort when I meet him in his two-floor storefront studio space in St Eriksplan. “But the thing is, the pieces are the same ones I started drawing four years ago, so that’s quite nice. They are still in my heart, and that’s something I haven’t felt for a very long time.”
The instantaneous buzz around HJRT is warranted; Hjort is a bona fide industry OG who played no small part in defining the current Swedish aesthetic in the early aughts by way of his beloved brand, Whyred. Since exiting the brand in 2008, he’s focused on a burgeoning art career (collage, mostly). In many ways, HJRT draws a direct line between his design prowess (when it comes to tailoring, especially) and his art practise. There are literal references – delicate, high-necked blouses and silk scarves printed with his collages – and more subtle nods, like the diagonal, geometric stitching that defines classic overcoats and ladylike tweed skirts. “That’s something with my collages – I always have something with that pentagram cut,” he says. “And if you look at the garments, it’s a lot of cuttings.”
Forgoing traditional seasons and schedules (this debut collection is ostensibly autumn/winter '24, though it’s never described as such), Hjort places his emphasis firmly on craft. “I wanted to do really handicraft garments,” says Hjort, noting that what ultimately destroyed the magic of Whyred was the slow decline in quality. “They wanted to push down the price – that’s the worst f***ing thing int he world.” This time around, there’s no cutting corners on decadent fabrications or elevated, tricky-to-produce tailoring. There are relaxed double-breasted coats in rich tweed and cashmere and sweaters hand-knitted in Iceland. Then there are the details – the clever way in which a fishtailed parka buttons up around the neck, for instance, or the subtle balloon of a coat sleeve. Save for a handful of blouses and frocks, the collection is decidedly genderless, cut generously to fit a wide range of bodies.
Though HJRT has arrived at just the right moment – when a certain sameness in the Stockholm landscape has made us hungry for something to talk about – there’s a timelessness to the pieces. These are the sort of standout items that longtime fans of Hjort will covet and collect (there are plenty of well-dressed Swedish women who still proudly wear their Whyred coats from two decades ago, after all). It’s perhaps no surprise that the greatest thing he’s learned since his indelible run with Whyred is patience. “Nothing disappears – if you have a good idea, it’s always a good idea,” he says. “These are the kind of pieces you can sell always. But I don’t want to be getting boring. No f***ing way.”
See the debut collection in full below.
