Oslo Runway enters its second decade: “Building an industry from scratch takes time”
The sky is blue as the Norwegian fashion week community gathers for a formal opening on August 31. Fresh fish and white wine are ready on dark oak tables. The view overlooks the sculpture garden of the modern Kistefos museum, an hour's drive from the capital.
“It feels ambivalent to come together in such a magnificent place right now,” says Elin Carlsen, chief executive officer of Oslo Runway.
Norway has been in deep mourning since August 28. King Harald V has passed away at the age of 89. “He was very popular because he spoke his mind and stood up for minorities when politics failed,” explains Carlsen. “He replied to letters from citizens in his own handwriting.”
After a respectful moment of silence, Carlsen gets to the point: Norwegian fashion is doing well. Although the afterparties have been cancelled, this achievement can certainly be celebrated.
10-year plan
The Norwegian fashion and textile industry generates one billion Norwegian kroner (NOK) annually. Around 52,000 people are employed in the sector. According to the industry cluster Norwegian Fashion Hub, the export of textiles, clothing and leather goods has grown steadily in the 10 years since 2016.
Oslo, as well as places on the west coast (Fjord Norway) like Bergen, are developing into luxury tourist destinations. It is quiet there, with a wide selection of luxury hotels and surprising brands. International brands are also moving into the city. Last November, the Italian fashion house Prada opened a boutique at Nedre Slottsgate 17, the largest in Scandinavia.
“I used to spend a lot of time explaining Norwegian fashion, now people approach us on their own,” says Carlsen. She has been steering the course of Oslo Runway since 2019, which was founded in 2015 as a modern alternative to Oslo Fashion Week. The fashion week has grown every year since then.
The programme for the 2026 edition was well-filled with 60 designers. Significantly more international press, agents and buyers were present than in the previous year. This is thanks to the Norwegian Fashion Hub, the cluster that promotes international networking in the fashion industry and actively promotes the fashion week.
“We could welcome twice as many guests if we had the budget for it,” says Carlsen. What particularly worries her is the discontinuation of the funding package from the national export initiative, in which the fashion week participated for three years.
“We are strongly advocating for more support, as the trade missions to Milan and London have proven to be very effective for the brands. We are planning for Canada and are also looking at South Korea; Japan; Germany; the Benelux countries; the UK and the US. It is wartime, these are different times. We will see.”
The plan for the next 10 years is based on four pillars. Oslo Runway will continue in the summer. Three awards will also be presented there for the best brand (this year: Aks Label); the best fashion professional (Jens Olav Dankertsen, founder of Livid); and the emerging design talent (Lars Math Henrichsen).
A business summit was launched for networking purposes. This took place for the first time in May, brought together two hundred professionals and proved to be a success.
Finally, the talent development programme supports young designers with the help of the textile organisation NF&TA (Norwegian Fashion & Textile Agenda), which recently founded an incubator with the support of Innovation Norway.
In 2026, these are Anna Ringstad and the sisters Johanna and Zandra Lundell (Wilhelmina). They each receive 50,000 NOK, which they can invest in their presentation at Oslo Runway. They will also be supported by mentors from the industry for one year.
Without founding fathers
The fact is that Norway, and Oslo in particular, has never had anything like the “Antwerp Six” or a historic fashion house. “To build an industry without ‘founding fathers’, you have to be patient,” says Carlsen. She expects it will take about twenty years for the entire Norwegian fashion apparatus to be able to stand on its own two feet.
The growth of individual brands also takes time. One example is Holzweiler, one of Norway's most successful brands. In 2024, 10 years after its foundation, the company achieved a turnover of over 278 million NOK. The commercial womenswear brand Ella&Il, which generates a turnover of 80 million kroner, dates from the same period. This year, the brand is entering the Swedish market together with the hair and beauty brand Eleni & Chris.
Carlsen says: “We have seen in the past that such a joint market entry works.”
The goal for the coming years is to cooperate more generously as an industry and to present a more confident image.
“Norway has expertise in fashion and sports culture. Traditionally, we have been somewhat reluctant to combine these two worlds. However, brands like Adidas and The North Face prove that you can be successful in both markets. They are deeply rooted in sport, but are at least as big in fashion. I look forward to our brands doing the same.”
Practical, but definitely fashion
From August 31 to September 5, Norwegian fashion could be admired in all its diversity. There were strong presentations in knitwear, outdoor, couture, sport, lifestyle and accessories.
Christian Aks renamed his label Aks Label and showed what was perhaps his strongest collection to date, with a range of co-ords and a wide variety of knitwear with refined details.
Other established knitwear brands include Woodling, founded by Siv Elise Seland, and ESP, named after the initials of designer Elisabeth Stray Pedersen. The latter showed at an accessible presentation in the park that the wool coats for which the brand became known are also suitable for everyday wear.
Models walked to folk songs with dogs on leashes and babies in their arms. With this location, Pedersen also cleverly advertised her first own shop, which opened in August just around the corner at Stensgata 2.
There was particularly great interest in Pearl Octopuss.y, which sells shiny brooches and upcycled earrings with thick pearls in addition to clothing. The unisex fashion of Selah 1313, which is popular on the nightlife and streetwear scene, and Envelope1976, the established label of style icon Celine Aagaard, also attracted a lot of attention.
Aagaard was able to present on the first evening in the museum park in Jevnaker in the spiral-shaped building The Twist. The brand pursues a consistent, minimalist and material-focused style, in which leather has become a trademark. It was her sixth major show.
Aagaard said: “Every time it has to be better than the last, especially when you get to show in such a fantastic place, and all this around the time of the king's death. There were therefore a lot of emotions involved in this collection.”
Next autumn, the brand will launch at Printemps in Paris. There is also now an agreement with the New Look Fashion agency for the Benelux markets.
For newcomer MCB Sportswear, Oslo Runway is a springboard to further tap into the growing sports market. In the boutique on the outside of the Steen & Strøm department store, comfortable fleece jumpers, ribbed tops and short T-shirts for after-sport wear hang alongside yoga leggings.
According to Eirik Frøyland, CEO of the brand, there is a sports shop on every street corner in Norway. Consumers now want something different: sportswear with a clear aesthetic. This is performance-oriented sportswear that can be worn all day, also known as ‘athleisure’.
“We are inspired by the atmosphere in Los Angeles, where people go to business meetings in sportswear. That is also slowly starting to happen in Norway.”
It is therefore all the more important not to place the brand in the ubiquitous sports shops, but in fashion stores like Moniker, for which Frøyland also does the buying. “This positioning works very well for us.”
In the Steen & Strøm department store, there is also a pop-up store with space for new talents like Ali Gallefoss, the founder of the young jewellery brand A Soft Grind. For his growth plan, he is banking on the city's thriving cultural scene.
“We have also seen in other small cities how a strong fashion industry can emerge. Why shouldn't Norway, with all its qualities, also be good at it? In Oslo, we now have a great culinary and artistic offering. The cultural climate has simply improved a great deal,” says Gallefoss. “What's more, the younger generation now going to school sees us as role models. We didn't have that.”
Give it time
The Aesthetic agency from the Benelux countries, which represents Melisa, Skall and Humanoid, among others, travelled to discover new brands. Co-owner Alexandra Brands says: “I am impressed by the commitment of the organisation and the passionate energy in the air. The entire fashion ecosystem supports this event, and everyone helps each other to make Norwegian fashion known internationally. The Envelope1976 brand stood out for us because of its leather workmanship and style, the perfect balance between feminine, tough and sexy.”
There is also interest in Scandinavian fashion from Asian countries, especially Japan, says Rico Iriyama, owner of the Ode Tokyo agency. “Brands like Holzweiler and ESP sell very well there, but not every label is a good fit for our market. The yen is very weak at the moment, which makes imported clothing twice as expensive as the local offering. So there has to be a very good match. Japan is also a difficult market to enter; that requires patience and a strategic five-year plan.”
In 2008, Iriyama swapped the Japanese fashion capital for Oslo. Since then, she has seen Norwegian fashion mature. “The designers are more internationally trained and have a better idea of good marketing and building collections. This means they are taken more seriously. Some brands take their collections to Paris and show them in showrooms there. If this continues, the Norwegian designers will soon follow Copenhagen. I would advise them: give it time.”