Arttu Åfeldt, Young Designer of the year 2024, is on a mission to transform menswear

Arttu Åfeldt has won the Young Designer of the Year 2024 competition. The designer, who is about to graduate from Aalto University’s Master’s programme, wants to reform menswear and challenge traditional manufacturing methods. Åfeldt, who found a passion for fashion at an early age, masterfully combines traditional tailoring with new technologies and materials. He will receive a €5,000 prize, donated by the Finnish Fair Foundation.

When Arttu Åfeldt walked into an interview as a finalist of the Young Designer of the Year 2024 competition in June, he probably did not have an idea of the impression his expertise made on the jury members. The designer spread out, for the jury to see, a jacket and trousers decorated with hand-attached rhinestones, demonstrating a combination of skilful tailoring and technical expertise. He was then asked several times: “Did you make all this yourself?”

Åfeldt, who will graduate from Aalto University with a Master’s in fashion this autumn, is on a mission to modernise menswear. By developing alternative manufacturing methods, he wants to challenge traditional methods and, for example, rethink the traditional men’s suit.

“As a designer, I am interested in the ever-evolving technology, materials and equipment that enable the development of innovative manufacturing methods. I have focused on technologies and materials that use heat and pressure to combine textile materials – such as vinyl finishing and seam taping”, says Åfeldt.

Åfeldt uses special techniques as a visual element, for example, by taping the seams of clothes from the outside using a hot-air seam sealing machine. This enables him to make, for example, pockets and seams without sewing.

“Fashion evolves, like the rest of the world. I believe and hope that the importance of craft skill will only grow in the future – by presenting itself in opposition to the current social media and artificial intelligence culture in which anyone can create material out of nothing”, says Åfeldt.

He felt a connection with the theme of the competition, Untitled, through never naming his works. He was also interested in the tracksuit phenomenon related to young people’s dressing, which he had come across earlier while working on his Master’s thesis.

“I find it interesting, because I don’t see any difference between the brands that are linked to this phenomenon. Almost all of these garments come from the same factory, and they are made using the same designs, with only the rhinestone pattern being unique. This emphasises anonymity: it is just reproducing what others are doing, and not challenging it”, he says.

In his competition entry, Åfeldt used the rhinestone thinking of the tracksuits, but instead of logos or patterns, he coated the entire garment with rhinestones. And instead of the rhinestones being fitted at a factory, he attached them all individually by hand.

“By doing everything from patterning to designing myself, I can bring out my technical expertise and create something special.”

Åfeldt loves tweaking things into perfection. The garments that combine tailoring expertise and innovative technologies look like they are from the collections of international fashion houses: equally perfected, inside and out. 

“Arttu Åfeldt’s excellent technical expertise and insightful ability to create new solutions are impressive. But what makes the biggest impact is how Arttu conveys a love for fashion and a passion for creating it. I believe that Arttu has a bright future in the world of fashion. I wish him success, and at the same time, I hope that we do not completely lose him abroad”, says the chair of the competition jury and the editor-in-chief of Gloria magazine, Kristiina Raitala.

Åfeldt’s skills recognised in international competitions

Fashion has been a driving force for the 28-year-old Arttu Åfeldt for so long that he does not even remember a time without it. He became interested in fashion in primary school.

“During the fifth and sixth grades, I started to make and restyle clothes myself. I got help, for example, from my grandmother, who bought my first sewing machine and fabrics”, says Åfeldt.

Being interested in fashion and dressing in experimental styles was not mainstream, and Åfeldt was bullied at school. However, he did not let this bring him down, but expressed himself by dressing in an even more flamboyant way.

“In secondary school, I spent all my free time creating new things for myself. I used clothes to build a kind of shell around me”, he says.

At the age of 16, Åfeldt began his artisan studies at the Wetterhoff institute. After his graduation, he was elected Artist of the Year 2015, and after a gap year, he began his studies at Aalto University in Helsinki.

Åfeldt’s skills have also been recognised in international competitions. His Bachelor’s thesis collection reached the final both in the Copenhagen Fashion Week’s Designers’ Nest event (currently called Alpha) and in one of the world’s most renowned competitions for young designers, held as part of the International Fashion, Photography and Accessories Festival - Hyères in France.

“I felt a little uncertain about whether people could see beyond the surface, or whether they saw my garments as just grey technical suits. It was rewarding when the head judge of Hyères, Lacoste’s creative director at the time, Louise Trotter, said that she had never seen anything similar and encouraged me to continue in this direction", says Åfeldt.

The following spring, in 2022, Åfeldt started as an intern at a fashion house in Milan. There, working with a senior designer, he saw the process of putting together a collection, and he learned the tools of the trade.

What next? Åfeldt has various alternative paths in mind.

“I’m interested in starting my own brand, but at the same time, I’m wondering whether we really need any more brands. I could skip this if I had an opportunity to collaborate with an existing company. One option for me is to work in a fashion house and keep developing my skills as a designer.”

When Åfeldt found out that he had won the Young Designer of the Year 2024 competition, he felt relieved.

“I see this as the end of one phase and the beginning of a new one. I have studied the field for almost 10 years, so this feels like a great ending to my studies”, he says.

Young Designer of the Year 2024 awarded a prize from the Finnish Fair Foundation

Arttu Åfeldt will receive a €5,000 prize, donated by the Finnish Fair Foundation. He will also have a stand with a related programme at the ‘I love me’ event at the Helsinki Expo and Convention Centre, from 29 November to 1 December 2024.

The Young Designer of the Year competition seeks emerging talent in the field and innovative, feasible designs. The 2024 edition was the 30th time that the longest-running and most prestigious competition for fashion design students in Finland has been held.

The jury includes the chair, editor-in-chief of Gloria magazine, Kristiina Raitala; fashion artist Ritva Falla; fashion influencer Taru Marjamaa; fashion designers Hammi Mettinen and Teemu Muurimäki; clothing designer Katri Niskanen; stylist and fashion journalist Nina Nuorivaara; fashion designer Mert Otsamo; and clothing designer Mari Talka. This year’s non-permanent member of the jury is Young Designer of the Year 2023, Henna Lampinen.

Images of the Young Designer of the Year 2024 competition are available for download here. Photographer: Mortti Saarnia

Interview requests and more information:

Pia Sievinen, communications specialist, Helsinki Expo and Convention Centre, puh. 040 559 9155, pia.sievinen@messukeskus.com

The Finnish Fair Foundation is a non-profit foundation that supports Finnish know-how and business life by annually distributing some 500,000 € worth of grants, scholarships, and recognition awards. The foundation’s grants aim to address the most significant challenges of our time in the areas of environment, population change, technology and digitalization, as well as in the fields of economy and urbanization.