The Finnish designer channeled his love for candy into his eponymous label’s spring-summer 2027 collection. Confections are everywhere. Giant swirl lollipops and sour skulls are printed on T-shirts. Crocheted licorice whips dangle from belt loops. Rows of gummy bears are woven into Fair Isle–style knits. Zipped pockets are cut to resemble the capsule-shaped shell of Good & Plenty treats. Rolf even paid homage to Candy King, a popular brand of Swedish pick-and-mix confectionery, with crown-shaped hats. 

“I looked at my own life,” he says. “At the time, I was mainly working from home. Now I have a studio, which is a huge upgrade. Back then, I’d work in my pajamas, put on a bomber jacket, go to the grocery store, buy something to eat, and come back home.” This became the inspirational jumping-off point for this season’s show, dubbed “Never Change.” Leaning into his casual sartorial choices and the daily habits that make up his life in Finland, Rolf created a collection that would adapt from day to night — day in, day out. 

This is expressed through a number of adaptable and easy, wear-everywhere garments. In Finland, Rolf tells me, there’s always potential for rain in the summertime. So, this season’s collection puts an emphasis on weatherproof outerwear that protects the wearer when the skies open up while still staying light on the body. There are, for example, deliciously cozy chocolate-brown bombers made of Japanese polyurethane-coated cotton. The detachable hood, made in a different fabric and color that visually breaks up the piece, is a clever detail wearers can play around with. 

“Immediately when you put them on, you feel like, ‘OK, this is the jacket that I’m gonna wear next fall or winter or late summer if you’re in Finland,” he says. (It’s 55 degrees in his home country at the time of this interview.) There’s a pocked-heavy, knee-length raincoat with contrast collars — a great addition to any wardrobe, no matter the season. But one of his most intriguing propositions is a practical burgundy-and-black plaid button-up with a hood. “It’s so comfortable,” he tells me. “It feels like air on top of you. It’s super lightweight cotton.” 

Rolf is particularly proud of his fabric choices this season, sourcing mostly Italian and Japanese textiles. He injects a sense of play by mixing materials and textures within single pieces, one of the many reasons his work remains refreshingly apart from the majority of technical designs that are out there. In its mingling of familiar and new silhouettes, the collection succeeds in showing us how it grew out of the designer’s previous collection, where we saw him step back into his signature creative strength: streetwear-inflected technical wear. 

Some background: The designer came to fashion after stints in sales, social work, psychology, and professional poker. His previous work has drawn on childhood memories of watching winter sports during Finland’s pitch-black winters and spending time in the great outdoors. He also sought inspiration in “Lavatanssit,” a beloved summertime dance tradition that takes place across open-air pavilions across the Finnish countryside. He claims he’d veered a little too far into nostalgia in those early collections, but he still posits romance through subtle details — the scarf-tie collars, the hand-painted floral prints, the cozy knitwear — that softens the tropes of utilitarianism throughout the collection. 

This season, he also continues his collaboration with girlfriend and artist Matilda Diletta on prints and graphics, alongside his mother, who handcrafted the aforementioned licorice-inspired charms. Rolf once told me that his brand is a family business; I hope that never changes. 

In that sense, if we pan out a little, “Never Change” takes on another layer of meaning. The message that designers should be creating something all new and “now” is constant and crushing, delivered by a never-stopping churn of trends. But Rolf doubles down on the things he does well and just as importantly, the people who’ve always been integral to his brand. This season, this also includes stylist and former Aalto University classmate Emma Saarnio. 

Still, some change is inevitable. 

A few things have changed for the brand (for the better) since my last conversation with Rolf, which was close to a year ago in Copenhagen. For starters, the designer moved into his own dedicated studio space about four months ago, which he calls “a huge upgrade.” There’s also the fact that, after several seasons of showing in the Danish capital, Rolf made the big move to Paris Fashion Week Men’s. The transition wasn’t without its challenges; competing with blockbuster houses, finding the right window in a packed-to-the-brim schedule, and compiling the guest list. And of course, the much-talked about heat didn’t make any of it easier. 

The show, which Rolf staged at techno nightclub Mia Mao within the Parc de la Villette of Paris’s 19th arrondissement, drew an excited crowd that lingered after the closing look for an after-party rave. “I think this was the best collection we’ve done,” he says. “It’s the most cohesive and best looks that we managed to put together. So, design wise, I’m OK where we are, and I sort of at least have a really strong point of view where we want to go from here.” Here, he shares more about his recent transition to showing off-schedule in Paris and how he dreamed up his latest collection. Following are excerpts, edited for style, grammar, and clarity.

It’s been a while since we last chatted — our last conversation was in Copenhagen, almost a year ago, after “189 Days Later — Encore.” You mentioned that Paris was going to be the next step, but as far as I understand, that didn’t work out earlier this year. What happened?

We just didn’t get everything ready in time. It was a budgetary thing, and it just became a bit impossible. Then we figured, let’s show the collection through pictures and a lookbook, and focus all of our energy on this summer. Thankfully, it worked.

What was that journey like? What was that transition like — going from showing in Copenhagen to Paris?

It actually felt a lot different. In Copenhagen, when you’re part of the New Talent program and on the official calendar, there’s a lot of help that you get from Copenhagen Fashion Week. They also have a website where people can apply to attend the show, and I really missed that. Trying to invite people through DMs on Instagram or emails was tricky.

Oh, that must’ve been … a lot.

I think that was the main difficult part. Then, when you’re in Paris, the competition is so much bigger. I don’t know if that’s the right word, but you’re competing with the biggest brands. They have after-parties, dinners, and all these events. So, we tried to find a date that would be somewhat available for people. We scheduled our show two hours after the Dries Van Noten show started, and we felt that would give people who really wanted to come the opportunity to do so. I think we were also a bit unlucky with the weather. […] There were a lot of things that we learned, and hopefully, when we continue, we’ll know how to pull it off even better. 

Let’s start with the venue, then. You hosted the show at the techno club Mia Mao. Why did you choose that space? What kind of atmosphere were you trying to create?

The main thing, when we started the season, was that we wanted to create an event with an after-party as well, because that’s quite important when you go to a new city and want to introduce new people to the brand. So, the after-party actually came first. We looked at different clubs that wanted to work with us, then started thinking about what kind of music and what kind of artists we’d like for the after-party. It sort of snowballed from there. Then the collection was built around that whole theme, and we came up with “Never Change,” meaning that I wanted to create a wardrobe you could wear from day to night and into nightlife.

Take me back to that starting point. How did that idea first come together? 

I looked at my own life. At the time, I was mainly working from home. Now I have a studio, which is a huge upgrade. Back then, I’d work in my pajamas, put on a bomber jacket, go to the grocery store, buy something to eat, and come back home. I realized I never really changed my clothes. I don’t know where you live, but in Helsinki, even though we live in the city center, the grocery store is just around the corner. I was like, “I can just go in my pajamas.”

That became a playful idea. Then I thought, why shouldn’t this be the whole theme? It felt natural. It’s what I do right now. I never changed my clothing. Since we also wanted to have the nightclub and the after-party, we wanted to show that pajamas and outerwear could work in that setting too. It was quite a natural progression.

When you first started out, there was a strong focus on technical sportswear. Over the seasons, that shifted to include more traditional Nordic influences. But in your last show in Copenhagen, we saw you return to those technical pieces, and that seems to continue here. There’s a lot of technical outerwear, so much functionality and versatility — from the detachable hoods to the oversized, pill-shaped pockets.

We definitely wanted to continue [with that], and I know we’ll push it even further next season. It just feels the most like home to me. We still have elements of the Nordics and something from Finland here and there, but it’s just what I love the most. I felt like you should always do what you do best. It’s good to try different things, but it’s better to really excel at something. That’s what I wanted to bring back with the outerwear. We haven’t had a big budget over the last few seasons to try out a lot of new stuff, but this season I took a bit of the budget, and I was like, “We need to do at least four new jackets and really push them further along.”

Let’s talk a little more about those familiar silhouettes. I recognized the zigzag details, like on the shorts from fall-winter 2025. Tell me a little bit about how you worked with those familiar silhouettes, evolved them for the season, and made them feel new.

We’ve been trying out different ways to make them. I’m not the biggest fan of raw edges. I think they can work in my aesthetic, but they always feel like a cheap way to finish a garment. So, this season, we learned how to sew them nicely. They’re all fully lined, and they feel very soft. The fabrics are amazing this season. We have the best outdoor materials from Italy, super-soft cottons, and I think some linens from Japan, but mainly cottons from Japan.

The skirt in the first look kind of reminds me of the tube-like skirts that you showed in spring-summer 2025, but it feels like the tubes are hollowed out. It looks like it’s moving a little more flexibly.

It’s 100 percent that one. We just took the tubes out. Some products sold really well last season in Japan, and that was one of them. So, I wanted to make an easier version that you could actually buy, because the tube versions were one of our most photographed pieces in Japan. Basically, I just followed what the market wanted from us, and we made a sort of techno version of that.

Tell me more about the fabrics. Are there specific pieces that stand out to you?

The blazer in the second look is super nice, but what I love most is the hooded shirt underneath. It’s so comfortable. It feels like air on top of you. It’s a super-lightweight cotton. 

That’s actually one of my favorite looks. I love the blazer and the giant pockets.

That’s a lot of Emma, styling-wise. I had a lot of different ideas for the styling. The initial thought was that the second look would have the [silver] overalls. That was the original idea because I saw the Korean movie “No Other Choice,” and there’s a scene where the main character is about to go kill someone. He’s still wearing his work blazer, but he puts on these fishing trousers. The moment I saw that scene, I was like, “OK, we’re going to do a version of it.”

There’s also a big emphasis on candy this season. There are a lot of graphics with candy references.

The candies were, again, part of the “Never Change” world because that’s basically one of the things I still, unfortunately, do. I eat lots of candy. I eat like a 10-year-old boy who doesn’t have parents. I also wanted to continue with the mascot. This cat will be our mascot until somebody says stop. I don’t know how many people need to ask for it to stop. But I already have a lot of people who want to buy the cat shirt and the cat hoodies, so I think it works. I think every season we’ll have it doing something related to the theme of the collection. We also had these fake mint candy ads during the show. 

You always have the most unexpected collaborations in your collections. I read that you collaborated with a dairy company. How did that come about?

That was actually through a friend of a friend who knew the dairy company and had the contacts. They also knew this small [fact] that most French bakeries use Valio butter for their croissants. We had this fabric that looked like the silver foil packaging of their butter, so we thought, why wouldn’t we try to introduce this idea? The people at Valio — I don’t think I’ve ever worked with happier or more outgoing young people in PR — they immediately said, “Yes, let’s do this.”

It was one of the last things we did because it came together maybe three weeks before the show. We immediately pulled the trigger, made the piece, and added it to the collection. They were really impressed with it, so hopefully we can continue working with them and have even more time and budget to come up with something fun. Valio is one of the main things we use daily, and their products are the ones I buy from the store, so it was fun to incorporate that into what I do because the whole theme was about things I do every day.

Of course, Matilda always does an incredible job with the graphics and prints. Tell me a little bit about what that collaboration looked like this season.

This season we mostly did print work with her. One of my favorite pieces is the tattoo shirts — the T-shirt tattoos. The idea was to do a sailor tattoo but to make it with Finnish candies. Or I think they’re international candies, but they’re the ones from our next-door pick-and-mix shop that Matilda and I [usually go to]. I thought it was just a fun idea, and I think it worked really well.

Did your mom lend a hand this season too?

She did the crocheted candies. We have Twizzlers, and then we have hard candy. I also had an intern called Shweta Dash, who made these really fun gummy bears out of glue and leftover paint we had at the studio.

Looking at this collection, where do you see the clearest signs of evolution in your own design and in the brand as a whole?

I like the newer styling direction. I have to give a lot of credit to Emma. Working with someone who understands what you do and also wants to elevate it, so we’re not producing the exact same looks every season, is really important. We wanted to make a colorful and fun collection, especially because it’s summer and because of the theme. We’re also starting to learn how to combine different elements — having a printed shirt with flowers, rose- or peach-colored trousers — and making all those elements work really nicely together. I think that will help me, at least from a design point of view, because I can push it even further next season.

What feels most important for people to recognize about your brand at this stage? How does this collection make that message clear? 

I think there are so many young designers who are very serious, which is a bit alarming to me. I think you should have a bit more fun because the industry is already going to destroy you a bit. So, try not to take yourself too seriously, and find happiness in pieces and details. I think we really focused on the details and the materials. I’m still learning so much about what we need to do and what the brand should look like, but happiness and joy are things I try to create in between my angst and depression.