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.
A leather biker jacket with buckles paired with a leather kilt is an interesting take on a sort of school uniform look, as is a satchel/backpack. Buckles feature a semi-transparent straight jacket/trench that plays to the see-through theme that fashion continues to play with. This piece, like the hand-cuff bag, feels self-conscious in a way the rest of the looks don’t. Clever is a pair of jeans with buttons that allow them to accommodate vastly different waist sizes. The double layer jeans with the heart cut-outs are carried over from a past season, and the women’s options are more convincing than before.
To my eye, Vain represents the future of fashion. Rather than trying to be all thing to all people, it is niche and has a direct connection to a known audience of like-minded, mostly young, peers. Music, particularly rap, is a common theme. These are clothes with distinctive details for a modern, casual wardrobe based on jeans and sweats; denim, leather, jersey. And there is an eco angle—upcycling is a key component of the brand practice; Vain uses wool that comes from Finnish sheep, for example.
Vain has shown on the runway, but in this editor’s opinion the clothes are better off away from it. This is fashion that has a beating heart; it flows out of the studio into the street and reflects how young creatives live. It epitomizes contemporary cool. Vain’s seasonal collections are distinct, but Anselmi’s focus is less on setting a style direction than mirroring his world. There’s no need to speak of “Vain’s woman or man,” the audience isn’t abstract, Vain is speaking to the converted.
The brand’s message is specific, not general, and is communicated through product and other channels. The digital passports the garments will soon have are being designed to offer “bonus tracks” to extend the experiential aspect of the brand even further.
Anselmi sees his work as being personal and local, saying that it “has this Finnish melancholy; Vain is a mix of my interests and things that I see as beautiful.” Yet it also has reach; Reinola notes that the brand is particularly popular in South Korea. The business structure reflects this duality, the main focus is DTC, with about 10 percent wholesale. All in all, there’s a lot to love about Vain.
