On March 16, Eytys opened a new store in Stockholm. Fast-forward three months, and the brand is waiting to see what happens next. Sweden may be a case study, but Max Schiller, Jonathan Hirschfeld, and their team have been living by the same restrictions as the rest of the world.
Like so many others, Schiller had been wishing he could slow down—although obviously not like this. With support from the Swedish government, Eytys has been honing its tactics, trimming costs, reconsidering partnerships, and reallocating resources for future growth. Big plans have been dashed, but they’re gamely trying on humble for size.
Eytys may be keeping things tight with just 22 looks, but a certain cheekiness factor remains intact. The collection notes ponder what might happen when retro-leaning artificial denim washes meet the Marlboro man. During a Zoom showroom presentation, a glimpse of the mood board revealed Winona Ryder and Cindy Crawford circa 1990, a heyday for tank tops, aviators, and distressed jeans.
“Paninaro subculture meets badass Italian bling,” is how Schiller described it. In other words: In this Swedish riff on ’80s-era Euro-preps, minimalism meets Cavalli-esque maximalism and is laid at the feet of Gen-Z. One T-shirt laid down that manifesto on a giant Z. “We like to poke fun at ourselves,” Schiller noted, lest anyone miss the joke.
One of the season’s salient trends up and down the price scale involves pairing tailored, oversized jackets with distressed denim. Eytys covered that base with a weathered leather blazer (here layered under a biker vest) and an ultra-light cashmere trench. The new Solstice high-waisted jean—their slimmest style ever—comes with a pearlized finish. Elsewhere, what looked like coated denim was, in fact, fluid Tencel. Faded denim may peel back in a laser-engraved serpentine motif inspired by a vintage shirt, and a snake-print crops up in camouflage colors. Schiller says he’s ophidiophobic, so this exercise was about facing the fear and doing it anyway. Anyone who can’t quite square with the silver cobra-head belt can always just fall back on the lavender snakeskin boots with a sleek, chunky heel.
Obviously, any virtual showroom falls short when it comes to detecting specialness of texture and detail, for example Velcro-fastened slides in white suede, or witty pull tabs. But a few pieces—like the revisited boxer shorts, a fringed bouclé dress, a slingback with a terraced heel and Western buckle—spoke for themselves.
Eytys is newly collaborating with the erstwhile British heritage brand Henri Lloyd—now under Swedish management—and reworking the Consort sailing jacket from 1965. Those and other utilitarian pieces in cloudy hues looked like they could weather the storm. Refining classics for a contemporary context is the label’s raison d’etre, the business duo said. “We are tackling our frustrations and trying to make some good out of it,” Hirschfeld offered. In that, Eytys is in good company.
