ROLF EKROTH SS27 Collection: Paris Fashion Week Menswear
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ROLF EKROTH’s SS27 collection, Never Change, made its Paris runway debut inside MIA MAO, a club space temporarily reconfigured for the presentation during Paris Fashion Week.
The presentation extended beyond the runway into an afterparty at the same venue, where the space fully slipped back into its club identity. A lineup of DJs carried the night forward, headlined by Sega Bodega, folding the show into a longer continuum where runway and nightlife blurred together.
We met Rolf Ekroth at the Sphere showroom in Paris, where Never Change could be viewed away from the pace of the runway. The collection takes its title at face value. Rather than reinventing the wardrobe, Ekroth is interested in extending it. Familiar garments are reconfigured through layering and styling, allowing them to move naturally across different moments of the day.
Pyjamas sit at the centre of this logic. They appear alongside technical outerwear, tailoring, and rainwear, dissolving the assumption that comfort belongs exclusively to the home.
That practicality is informed by Finland, where unpredictable weather makes layering a necessity rather than a styling choice. Functionality and aesthetics operate in tandem, allowing the same garment to move between a rainy street, a club environment, and back indoors.
Some of the collection’s strongest ideas emerge through acts of continuation. One jacket features a hood constructed from fabric left over from one of Rolf Ekroth’s earliest collections. Because the material is finite, the piece can only be produced in limited numbers. During our conversation, we noted that it effectively functions as a limited-edition garment, an observation Ekroth met with a laugh before agreeing that it was one way of looking at it.
That idea of also appears in the collection’s collaborations. A partnership with Finnish dairy company VALIO transforms the brand's silver butter packaging into a futuristic baker's uniform, inspired by Ekroth's discovery that Finnish butter finds its way into many of Paris' bakeries.
Elsewhere, details accumulate to expand the collection’s world. Tattoo-inspired graphics, developed with long-time collaborator MATILDA DILETTA, reinterpret Ekroth’s favourite pick-and-mix sweets, while oversized candy-like accessories extend the same playful logic beyond the garments. On the runway, those tattoo motifs are applied directly to models’ skin, becoming one of the presentation’s most striking visual gestures.
Completing the collection's accessories, sunglasses developed with Finnish eyewear brand PALOCERAS introduced a bold, exaggerated sportswear silhouette that sat naturally within the collection's day-to-night framework.
Speaking with Ekroth, it becomes clear that the collection is shaped as much by its collaborators as by its garments. Throughout our conversation, he consistently credits the makers and long-standing relationships that underpin the brand.
That approach is reflected in the runway casting. Rather than relying on conventional casting agencies, model Mathilde Cartoux took an active role in assembling the cast. What began with her joining the show evolved into her bringing in people from her own circle, allowing the lineup to develop organically through existing relationships. The familiarity between them translated into an ease that was visible on the runway.
The same ethos runs through the wider brand. Ekroth emphasised the importance of keeping production rooted in Finland, continuing to work with local seamstresses and long-standing collaborators rather than shifting production to larger external manufacturers. As the brand grows, maintaining those relationships remains central to its identity.
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