HODAKOVA: sentimental sustainability meets cutting-edge fashion design

STOCKholm & deadSTOCK-based HODAKOVA delivers a sustainable take on avant-garde fashion, deriving from the ferocious respect to our wardrobe belongings.

Whom?

Ellen Hodakova Larsson grew up on a horse farm just outside Stockholm, where her early experiences shaped her innovative but at the same time nostalgic approach to design. From a young age, she was inspired to breathe new life and stories into objects and clothes around her. Her mother, a skilled fur seamstress with a talent for mending, often took Ellen and her brother to second-hand stores to find items they could transform. These formative moments, paired with hours spent repairing clothes alongside her mother, heavily influenced Ellen’s design philosophy.

Her maternal grandmother, described by Ellen as her “biggest inspiration,” also left a lasting mark on her creative journey. As a tribute, she adopted her grandmother’s maiden name, HODAKOVA, as the name of her brand – a nod to Ellen’s roots and a symbol of the values she holds dear.

After leaving the horse farm, Ellen began studying sculpture at an art school in Stockholm. However, she quickly realized her passion lay in sculpting on a different canvas: the human body. This realization led Ellen to transfer to The Swedish School of Textiles, where her graduate collection garnered significant attention. Building on this momentum, she officially launched HODAKOVA in 2021.

What?

HODAKOVA masterfully blends time-honoured artisanal techniques with contemporary design, transforming existing garments into sought-after pieces. While the brand delivers a powerful message of sustainability, it does so with an unmistakable sense of whimsy. Lead designer Ellen herself draws on her playful childhood on a horse farm, infusing her creations with a spirit of reinvention. What might seem uninspiring at first, is reimagined by Ellen into something captivating. For example, a pile of discarded belts deemed waste by many – is skilfully transformed into a striking gala dress.

A key element of HODAKOVA’s design philosophy is Ellen’s admiration for two legendary designers: Martin Margiela and Elsa Schiaparelli. From Margiela, she draws inspiration for his deconstructive techniques and innovative use of uniforms, while Schiaparelli’s surreal whimsy informs her playful, boundary-pushing creations. Ellen has turned serving trays into bustiers, sculpted work boots into corsets, and even transformed paintings into dresses. Beneath these avant-garde experiments lies a deep respect for craftsmanship and structure, reflecting both Margiela’s influence and the disciplined aesthetic passed down by Ellen’s father.

How?

While many designers are drawn to fresh, new fabrics, the creative force behind HODAKOVA finds them uninspiring. Ellen prefers to work with existing materials, seamlessly bridging the worlds of arts and crafts with the realms of fashion runways and city streets. She redefines upcycling, which is often associated with a retro, thrifted aesthetic, transforming it into a luxurious and forward-thinking approach to craftsmanship. Her signature pieces, such as dresses and handbags crafted from second-hand belts, showcase modern, structured, and streamlined silhouettes. In other designs, zippers are artfully repositioned to follow the body’s contours, creating elegant skirts, while waistbands are reimagined into sculptural gowns. Ellen’s creations transcend the idea of repurposed fashion; for her latest collection, she even transformed landscape paintings into textiles.

As part of her unwavering commitment to sustainability, Ellen has cultivated partnerships with various second-hand companies to source materials for each collection. Additionally, HODAKOVA collaborates with a different brand every season to create exclusive, specialized pieces. For example, the Fall 2023 collection saw collaboration with Houdini Sportswear, which provided leftover merchandise that Ellen transformed into runway-ready dresses made from windbreakers. This innovative approach has garnered success for HODAKOVA, with its pieces now being worn on streets worldwide, extending their life far beyond the runway.

Why?

In a world consumed by micro-trends, relentless collection cycles, and a constant stream of new product launches, HODAKOVA stands as a bold challenge to industry norms with its sustainability-driven ethos. Ellen envisions a future where the first fully sustainable fashion house becomes a reality, striving to shift public perception and redefine what fashion can be. A significant milestone toward this vision came in September 2024 when HODAKOVA was honoured with the prestigious LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers – an accolade that often signals future success in the fashion world.

Ellen, a true visionary, draws inspiration from a time when fashion was seen as an art form, when dresses were cherished as investments, and consumers were collectors. To transform the industry, she operates with a flexible business model that embraces specific constraints to fuel creativity. By working with discarded materials, she emphasizes the importance of quality, untapped potential, and impeccable craftsmanship.

One of the most significant challenges in using deadstock, vintage, or upcycled resources is scalability. Yet, Ellen’s unwavering commitment to sustainable practices has led her to establish a global system for sorting, defining, and cleaning materials for reuse. In doing so, she challenges the traditional belief that reproducibility requires uniformity, instead celebrating the unique beauty found in subtle differences.

Where?

Celebrity clients such as Kylie Jenner, Cate Blanchett, Emma Corrin, Julia Fox, Greta Lee, and Maisie Williams have already embraced the rising sustainable brand – HODAKOVA. Kylie Jenner was one of the first to bring HODAKOVA’s unique designs to the global stage, showcasing the brand’s visionary approach to fashion.

Cate Blanchett and Greta Lee recently helped solidify HODAKOVA’s status with their bold red carpet choices. Blanchett wore a top made entirely of spoons, while Lee captivated onlookers in a corset crafted from a split work boot, both showcasing the brand’s eccentric and avant-garde sensibility.

Emma Corrin turned heads in HODAKOVA’s mini belt dress, leaving a lasting impression and sparking conversations across the fashion world. Meanwhile, Saoirse Ronan, the newly minted street-style sensation, went viral for sporting HODAKOVA’s asymmetrically patchworked Barbour jackets – yet another example of the brand’s ability to transcend traditional fashion boundaries.

HODAKOVA is more than just runway fashion; it’s a movement. For those seeking a meaningful, cutting-edge investment in fashion, be sure to visit one of HODAKOVA’s 16 retail locations.