Johanna Parv’s ‘engineered formalwear’ is made for the woman on the move

Rising talent, names to know: ‘Uprising’ is a monthly feature highlighting an energetic new vanguard of fashion talent, selected by the Wallpaper* style team.

Crib notes

Name: Johanna Parv

Brand: Johanna Parv

Alumnus of: Central Saint Martins MA

City: London, UK

Signature style: Gracefully engineered formalwear for the intrepid women of London.

Design philosophy

Johanna Parv’s clothes are stealthily beautiful. Hanging on a rail they might appear like ordinary sportswear, but once put on the body they suddenly spring to life. Her namesake brand is the product of a near-anthropological study of the women of London, observing the ways they weave through traffic on their bikes, sprint through busy parks, and dance all night at bars. Parv, a problem solver at heart, asked herself how she could equip the intrepid modern woman to move freely through the city. Crafting femme fatale silhouettes in concrete shades and sleek ergonomic lines, the resulting world she has etched out merges the technicality of ‘gorpcore’ with the restrained elegance of formalwear. The woman at its centre, meanwhile, effortlessly goes from the boardroom to dinner by way of the bike lane, completely in control at every turn.

While other designers might lead with the visual aspects of a collection, Parv’s sensory approach – where the experience of the wearer comes first – has set her on her own trajectory. Since graduating from Central Saint Martins MA in 2020, she has worked in-house at Balenciaga and Dior, risen up through Fashion East, been shortlisted for the LVMH Prize, and attracted a devoted following. It's these women, herself included (Parv wears her own designs every day), that she continually aims to serve. ‘So much of my work comes from everyday life,’ she says. ‘Let’s say I put on a pair of men’s sports shorts, but because it's raining I happen to wear them over leggings. From wearing that I notice things that are missing that could make life easier. You start finding solutions – then you think, this need of mine might be also someone else's need. I will design it, elevate it and make it beautiful. My goal is to make clothes that are pleasing to look at but also really, really pleasing to wear.’

Born in Estonia, Parv grew up in a family where craft was part of day-to-day life, often whittling wooden toys with her brothers and tinkering at jewellery with her mum. ‘My mum is a designer, my grandmother is a handcraft teacher, and my dad is an engineer, so it set me up with the perfect collection of knowledge,’ she says. A years-long cyclist and a national-level athlete in her teens, it makes sense that movement would become the core of Parv’s design world, though these days it's really the emboldened mentality of athletes that Parv is most interested in translating into her clothes. ‘When you do sport, you have a deep understanding of distance, speed, winning, losing,’ she explains. ‘In all of this, the courageous girl who's taking risks is always at the centre. Movement is important, but not necessarily in the direct context of sport. It's more the essence of what sports give us – it makes you more confident, powerful and dynamic. My work is very much about the woman, how to make her in charge wherever she is, whether she’s travelling through the city or in social situations.’

Now a BFC Newgen designer, Parv skipped a runway for A/W 2025 – shows are stressful and expensive – instead unveiling her collection via a dynamic film by Peter Butterworth and a pared-back shoot by Luca Strano, debuted here exclusively on Wallpaper*. The collection found its starting point Norman Parkinson’s photographs of female skiers of the 1950s, captured smiling on slopes in romantic yet impractically wadded knitwear. ‘I‘m always doing research and I’m really fascinated by the history of women’s clothing,’ she says. ‘When I was looking at these alpine outfits, I thought they were so amazing, but you just wonder how did she get down the mountain in that? I wanted to take the feeling of these silhouettes and engineer them for the woman of today.’

Parv’s own mountaineers are made to move freely, clad in designs where protective functionality meets clever sophistication. Arriving in wintery blacks and browns, her signature cotton and mesh silhouettes cling to the body in second skin layers inlaid with practical elements, like sensitively placed panels, grippy dots, and reflective strips. Leaning more into boxy unisex shapes for the first time, elsewhere supple pinstripe wool suiting finds the ease of warm-up tracksuits, while dramatically-cut anoraks and sweeping skirts are made featherlight and waterproof. Taking myriad needs into her thoughts, unusual leather accessories – like a handwarmer bag affixed to the stomach, or asymmetrically slung pouch – are made to disappear beneath jackets or shift around the body, designed with a dozen places to stash keys and phones. Clever, purposeful and understatedly sexy, the collection signals a confident new stage in Parv’s journey after leaving Fashion East in 2024.

Beneath the refined power of the collection, subtle details hidden from the untrained eye point towards this deeper stage of confidence. ‘I’m really proud of the natural fibres in this collection,’ Parv says. ‘Wool and leather are really expensive, and I’m so happy I’ve been able to use them. We also only have two colours for each style. My goal was to make everything more simple to push the actual garments, so when you wear it you will just have the best experience.’ In some ways, this streamlined approach is commercially risky, Parv admits, as buyers are always looking for something new. But she’s betting on her intimate understanding of her customer. ‘Women want to come back to something they've already loved,’ she says. ‘They don't actually want extreme changes.’ Alongside new iterations of her sharp A-line skirts, Parv makes a sentimental wink to a polo maxi dress from her debut collection, grounding herself into the identity she has discerningly evolved over the past five years. In 2025, she knows exactly who her woman is – what she likes, what she needs, and how to make her feel powerful.

Looking forward to what the rest of this year holds, Parv is relaunching her website and gearing up for show season in September. ‘Right now I’m interested in police women outfits, this season gone it was skiwear,’ she says. ‘It's a way of me getting excited to start something. I love that storytelling part, but at the same time it's about how we’re living. I've listened to more women, what their experiences are, what they want and need. I'm looking forward to showing the next collection at London Fashion Week. It's almost like I'm a drug addict – I know the come down after the show is so hard, but I also can’t wait to do it.’

In their words

‘When I was younger, I did this experiment where I wore one pair of jeans every day for six months. I was so fascinated by what might happen to the jeans, but also by the way I would feel wearing them. I still have that fascination in me now. I guess something about my clothes is that they don't scream fashion right away. A lot of people say that when they try on my clothes, they would never expect them to feel the way they do. I love hearing when women enjoy the experience of wearing my stuff – that's a big aim of mine, to create products that serve you. They are inspired by the references that we look at, but that's always just a starting point. I like looking at the history because it's nice to connect back to where we're coming from, but my focus is always on women in action. I like them being in charge. That’s what inspires me.’

Where to buy

johannaparv.com, Ssense, Farfetch