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Reykjavík is quietly rewriting the map of international fashion and Erlendur Fashion Week Iceland (EFWI) is leading the way.
There are fashion weeks that follow the calendar, and there are fashion weeks that create their own. Erlendur Fashion Week Iceland belongs firmly to the second group. Staged against the raw, cinematic backdrop of Reykjavík, EFWI has, in just two editions, positioned itself as one of the most distinctive platforms in the Nordic creative landscape, a place where fashion, art, and culture don’t simply coexist, they collide and create something new.
Following a landmark debut in September 2024, the second edition unfolded from September 3–7, 2025, transforming the Icelandic capital into a five-day celebration of style, storytelling and collaboration, not by imitating Paris, Milan, or New York, but by offering an alternative vision of what a fashion week can be.
Founded by the Erlendur Talent Agency, EFWI was built around a clear and deliberate philosophy: fashion as a vehicle for inclusivity, cultural exchange, and the amplification of underrepresented voices. The event is the vision of founder Carlotta Tate-Olason, a health psychologist and the founder of Erlendur Magazine, together with co-founder and production director Bianca Hallveig Sigurdardottir, a New York Fashion Week model and stylist with a natural instinct for design.
“We wanted to create a platform that doesn’t just mirror other fashion weeks, but instead reflects unapologetic creativity, collaboration, and opportunity.”
— BIANCA HALLVEIG SIGURDARDOTTIR, CO-FOUNDER & PRODUCTION DIRECTOR
That ambition runs through every element of the production, from the casting to the venues to the deliberately international lineup. The 2025 edition was brought to life by an extraordinary team, including producer Iliyan Dukov and creative director and fashion stylist Latoya McLeary, with hair and make-up led by Junior Sanchez.
EFWI opened with Fashion & Art at Port9 on September 3 and 4, setting an experimental, gallery-like tone before the main runway shows on September 5 and 6. For those, the event chose one of the most striking venues imaginable: the Whales of Iceland Museum, where life-size models of the ocean’s giants tower over the catwalk, a setting where nature, creativity, and couture merged into a single immersive spectacle rather than a conventional fashion show.
Headlining the week was celebrity designer Michael Lombard, whose much-anticipated solo show anchored Saturday evening. Around him, EFWI assembled a genuinely global roster: Icelandic talents such as Sigrún Björk Ólafsdóttir, Victoria Rachel Zamora, Marko Svart, and Fawencha Rosa shared the runway with international designers including Dovile Riebschlager (a New York Fashion Week name returning after a standout 2024 debut), Kwame Konar Koranteng, Goda Latvys, Dushka Durie, Maks Design, Lia Kamenova, Gina Kasongo, Emma Okyere, Ashleigh Renee, and Natalia Slizowska. Creative director Latoya McLeary also presented through her label HauteLife World, while jewellery designers Lauren Edie Walton and Maddy Dimcheva added an accessories dimension, a spread of disciplines and backgrounds that captured exactly the kind of cross-cultural exchange EFWI was built to champion.
That roster also underlined the event’s commitment to sustainability. Among the debut collections was Future Relics by Lauren Edie Walton, founder of Endurlífga Jewellery, who trained in Birmingham’s historic Jewellery Quarter before relocating to Iceland. Her pieces transform unexpected materials, bicycle reflectors, car paint, other upcycled objects, into striking jewellery that treats sustainability not as a marketing line, but as a creative starting point.
If EFWI feels perfectly matched to its setting, that’s no accident. Iceland has become one of the most compelling creative markets in the world, small in population, but outsized in influence and reach.
Despite a population of roughly 380,000, Iceland welcomed close to 2.3 million international visitors in 2025, with August, as it is every year, the peak month, drawing around 313,000 arrivals through Keflavík alone. A runway in Reykjavík therefore sits at a genuine global crossroads: an audience that is international, affluent, adventurous, and actively seeking authentic cultural experiences.
There’s also the creative ecosystem. Reykjavík has spent the past decade earning a reputation as a trendsetting Nordic fashion city, anchored by institutions such as DesignMarch, the country’s largest design festival. Icelandic design carries a recognisable signature: minimalism, bold natural textures, honest materials, and a deep commitment to sustainability. Combined with real global visibility, that is exactly what makes Iceland such an attractive market, a stage both internationally connected and unmistakably its own.
For emerging and established designers alike, EFWI represents more than exposure. It offers a curated international audience, a network of industry professionals, campaign-shoot opportunities against some of the most photogenic scenery on earth, and a production framework designed to let creativity travel without borders. That spirit of connection is deeply Icelandic: the country’s design community is famously close-knit and collaborative, and EFWI channels that same energy on an international scale, designers supporting designers, cultures meeting on the runway, a platform built to open doors for talents in Iceland and far beyond.
With two successful editions behind it, Erlendur Fashion Week Iceland is steadily earning its place on the international fashion calendar. The event now looks ahead to its third edition, returning to Reykjavík from September 3rd to 6th, 2026, once again drawing designers, buyers, media, and creatives from around the world. This time it is joined by Fashion Connect as Official Media Partner and International Show Promoter, a collaboration set to bring Icelandic fashion onto the global stage and open even more doors for emerging and established talent alike.
In the end, EFWI has proven that a fashion week can be a celebration of identity, artistry, and global creativity, and that the land of fire and ice is more than ready to take its place on the world stage.
Erlendur Fashion Week Iceland is organised by the Erlendur Talent Agency, Reykjavík, with Fashion Connect as Official Media Partner. Stay up to date on the latest news and the 2026 edition by following @erlendurfashionweekiceland on Instagram.
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