Apparently, Phoebe Philo is a hugger.
When Ellen Hodakova Larsson won this year’s LVMH Prize for her brand Hodakova, Philo, who was a jury member, ran up to her at the ceremony in Paris and embraced her warmly. “She was so proud and so happy. She’s just such a humble person,” Larsson explained over Zoom from her quiet, dimly-lit studio in Stockholm a few months after the announcement.
That day was a bit surreal for the soft-spoken, easy-going designer, not only because it marked a promising new chapter for her brand or because hers was the first Swedish label to be awarded the prize, but also because of the company she realized she now shares. “I was standing and chatting with Natalie Portman,” Larsson recalled of another moment at the ceremony. “Marc Jacobs came up to me and sort of pushed her aside a little to say ‘Oh, I can finally meet you!’ I’m so honored to be able to get that kind of a response from these people.”
Ellen Hodakova Larsson
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The hype around Hodakova has been building for some time now. Larsson launched her label in 2021 and since then, she’s gotten on the radar of everyone from Philo to Jacobs to Kylie Jenner. This year, actresses Cate Blanchett and Greta Lee both made headlines wearing her designs—a top made of antique silver spoons and one made of old leather riding boots, respectively. In the fashion industry she’s become a total darling. Her fans love her for the way that she challenges the system with her transformative, trick-the-eye silhouettes, her love of found materials, and her reverence for craft.
Larsson’s designs are handmade in small quantities using upcycled fabrics and materials that she and her team acquire through special partnerships with independent makers. Her runway pieces call to mind the bucolic setting of her upbringing on a horse farm outside of Stockholm. A familiarfamiliar garment like an argyle sweater, for example, will be tweaked into the realm of the weird with the addition of a pencil skirt made entirely out of cross-woven belts.
Hodakova’s Spring 2025 collection, shown in Paris in September, featured the aforementioned look, along with a fringe dress made entirely from zippers and sheath tops made from linen dish cloths with red piping. Larsson might be considered a disciple of designers like Martin Margiela, Miguel Adrover, and Demna in her use of deconstructing and rebuilding with unexpected materials, but her vision is more quaint. It’s humble and warm, yet precise and uncompromising.
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“I think I have quite a strong and clear vision of where I’m going,” Larsson said when I asked her how she was feeling about being thrust into the industry spotlight via her celebrity endorsements and her LVMH win. “I think it’s nice to have experts to talk with, but in general, I feel like I’m quite secure in the flow of my creation and knowing that I want to keep craftsmanship in the front room [of my business].”
Her fierce dedication to the integrity of craft was something she honed first during her childhood and later as a student studying sculpture and art at The Swedish School of Textiles. Larsson grew up with a mother who was a seamstress constantly reworking old pieces of clothing and decor around their home. Eventually, while in school, she realized that she was more interested in creating shapes and forms around the human body, rather than flat, lifeless surfaces.
Larsson is anti-trend but believes in the power of timeless garments, like the uniforms of her military father, which have always inspired her. If her sustainable approach to business feels like a rebellion against the current fashion system, so does her design process. “Everytime I create, my aim is to surprise myself,” she said. “If I don’t, then I don’t really want to include it because it doesn’t have the tension. And I think that’s super interesting to follow because that’s the magic of creating.” In other words, Hodakova doesn’t follow a formula, and yet Larsson has written her own language with clothes. Her designs are recognizable and not, surprising yet rooted in convention. Anyone who critiques her work as not being “sellable,” as many old-line retailers are wont to do with emerging labels these days, need only to look at the success of labels who have followed a similar trajectory, not just the Margielas of the world but also successful young brands like Bode, Collina Strada, and Vaquera.
There’s a certain amount of freedom that a designer of this ilk must subscribe to in order to fully hone their vision—a rebellious attitude that gives a kind of Cinderellian fantasy to banal materials and silhouettes. It’s a notion that, in various forms, was once pioneered by the likes of Philo and Jacobs, by Margiela and Adrover. But while Larsson has immense respect and admiration for those who came before her, she is firm in asserting her own path forward in fashion. “I am more of an analyst and a searcher, a tryer and a doer.”
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She always starts with the material first, then lets an idea formulate organically once she starts cutting and draping. Sometimes she finds inspiration in the external world, too, like the short documentary she recently watched on television about the Swedish royal family’s clothing archive. Larsson also thinks about her past—her equestrian days, her old boyfriend who influenced her away from The Beatles and Tracy Chapman towards punk music—but her goal in self-referencing is to keep building on what she’s already done, constantly striving to make it better every time.
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That’s how house codes are built in great fashion labels, something many people in the business have forgotten as fashion keeps moving faster and the word luxury becomes less about the singular and more about the price tag. “For me, it’s fine to replicate a technique for several seasons and just be proud of that technique, do it in different ways, then show the possibilities of these techniques,” she said. “That’s one thing I always do: Look at the old work I’ve done, reflect on it, and then see what we could use moving forward.”
Larsson knows that there’s a challenging road ahead when it comes to scaling her business due to the rarity of her materials and her precious approach to craft, but she understands the value of balance and of remaining open to all possibilities, steadfast as her vision is. “I love being an entrepreneur, for real,” she said with a smile. “You have to just try things out, follow your gut feeling. I can’t be perfect with the first things I do and I’m not looking to be perfect.” She added, “It’s never an easy road, whether you’re building a house or making a shoe or if you’re cooking a dinner. You’re learning by doing and you have to enjoy the ride a little bit.”
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Post-LVMH win, nothing has really changed for Larsson on a personal level. She may have more funding and more interest in her brand, as well as a new connection with industry icons willing to dole out hugs and admiration, but the reason Larsson’s star is so poised to keep rising is the tender, unpretentious belief she has in herself. She deserves everything that is coming to her because of her tremendous talent, but also because of the way she believes, in the purest of ways, that fashion isn’t just about wearing clothes but about progress and transformation. “I’m looking for a more creative, exciting, and curious world to be in,” she said. In Larsson’s world, boots may not be made for walking, but they are full of endless possibilities.
