In November 2021, during the Covid days when the world needed a lift, Helsinki’s Vain provided one with a runway collection consisting of garments made from upcycled McDonald’s uniforms presented in a local franchise. It broke the Internet. And the witty, wearable pieces were later shown in a food-themed exhibition at the Museum at FIT. Since then Vain, which was co-founded by friends Jimi Anselmi Vain, creative director, and CEO Roope Reinola, has proved it has staying power.
Following shows at Pitti Uomo and Copenhagen Fashion Week, the label made its New York debut for spring 2025 in the private residence of the consul general of Finland. Just days before, Billboard published an editorial in which Playboi Carti wore Vain. This was a full circle moment for Anselmi in particular. Before joining forces with Reinola, he was customizing sneakers. Within 48 hours of posting a pair of souped-up Air Jordan 1s, which he dubbed “Loved 1s,” online, Playboi Carti came calling, via Facetime. Of that experience, Anselmi wrote: “We are all just some internet kids who do what they feel love and passion for.”
The ability to be at once niche and a citizen of the world, connected to other like-minded people through pop culture, notably music, started with the MTV generation (raised on pop) and has exploded exponentially in these online, rap-centric times. One of the main tensions within Vain is between isolation and engagement. Anselmi and Reinola grew up in Ostrobothnia, a rural area that they describe as Finland’s Bible belt. It’s there that Alvar Aalto won a competition for his Lakeuden Risti, Cross of the Plains Church and Parish Centre, with its distinctive, rood-shaped clock tower. The Vain founders spent time fraternizing around another monument, the glowing M of the local McDonald’s sign. The fast-food restaurant, they told me in a 2023 interview, was “the only thing from overseas.” Already they had their sights set beyond the place they came from. Their home base is Helsinki, where they have a shop, and from which they reach the world, spreading their message of love.
Love? If you buy into the idea that the stereotypical Finn is inexpressive and non-demonstrative, then this is a somewhat subversive message. Adding to that Vain’s symbol-logo is a heart, a heart whose rounds somewhat recall the shape of the aforementioned golden arches. There’s a touch of genius in this melding of personal iconography with universal (consumerist) symbolism. This season, Reinola explained, the brand is focused “on the core values, which is to bring the heart into people’s everyday lives… We’re trying to create this alternative aesthetic for love, to show that it can exist in many different forms.”
In past collections there have been a heart-shaped diamond ring and a concrete “balloon” in the shape of a heart; for spring there are buttons with an anatomical heart, and a print of heart surgery as well as more subtle uses of the logo. Romance enters in the ruffles down the front of an ivory viscose blouse and the puff sleeves on a bomber. These, Anselmi said, reference “the Atlanta trap artist Yung Thug, who wore women’s clothing mixed with men’s. At the time when he [started doing this], it was new. We wanted to play with something sexy and beautiful mixed with something rough.” In the lookbook the top is shown with a pair of olive drab pants with cargo pockets, seaming details and drawings for customization. These trousers are made of a crinkly cotton-metal mix textile. An all-back tailored look made of upcycled fabric seems to have a Finnish musical reference: Ville Valo, the goth rocker known as Him, who Vain namechecked in an earlier collection.