Heikki Salonen

Heikki Salonen is a Finnish designer whose work spans an independent label, MM6 Maison Margiela and technical sportswear. He founded his own label in 2007 and later developed Vyner Articles, using music, subculture and direct wardrobe construction as continuing references.

Salonen joined the MM6 team around 2013 and led its creative direction for roughly twelve years. Although MM6 maintained an anonymous collective public voice, later industry reporting and collection coverage identified him as the internal creative head. During this period the label expanded its Milan runway presence, menswear proposition and collaborations, including its continuing work with Salomon.

In January 2026 Salonen became Salomon’s first creative director, responsible for apparel and footwear, alongside studio director Laura Herbst. The appointment made public the long MM6 tenure while also extending his interest in functional product, subcultural dress and garments made for movement.

Salonen begins with lived-in wardrobe types: denim, parkas, knitwear, school and work uniforms, band clothing and technical outerwear. Construction changes are direct rather than ornamental, using altered volume, exposed layers, distressed surfaces and unexpected fabric combinations to give ordinary garments a second identity.

At MM6, this approach worked inside an anonymous studio. Familiar Margiela methods—reversal, displacement, splicing and visible making—were brought closer to daily clothing and shared across women’s, men’s and unisex styling. The result depended on collective consistency rather than a signature repeated as personal branding.

His move to Salomon places the same method inside performance product. Trail-running structures, protective layers and footwear engineering provide fixed functions that can be revised through proportion, material and the cultural life of sport beyond competition.