Introduction
Heikki Salonen is a Finnish fashion designer whose career spans an independent label, Diesel, MM6 Maison Margiela and technical sportswear. He founded his own label in 2007 and later developed Vyner Articles. After winning the Diesel Award at International Talent Support in 2008, he entered Diesel through an internship and consulting work across men’s, women’s and Diesel Black Gold.
By June 2011 Salonen was managing Diesel women’s collections and was publicly described as design head at Diesel Female, with Spring/Summer 2012 identified as his first offering. He continued to supervise womenswear after Bruno Collin’s departure, while mainline menswear remained studio-led. Around 2013 he moved into another OTB role and joined MM6 Maison Margiela, where he led the collective creative direction for roughly twelve years.
In January 2026 Salonen became Salomon’s first Creative Director, responsible for apparel and footwear alongside Studio Director Laura Herbst. The appointment made his long MM6 tenure public and extended a practice already shaped by functional product, subcultural dress and garments designed for movement.
Design ethos
Salonen begins with lived-in wardrobe types: denim, parkas, knitwear, uniforms, band clothing and technical outerwear. He alters volume, exposes layers and combines distressed or utilitarian materials so that ordinary garments acquire a second identity without losing their everyday function.
At Diesel, this method operated inside a large commercial product system. His womenswear balanced denim and casualwear with softer silhouette, adjusted proportion and controlled layering, while the division of labour kept menswear and Diesel Black Gold authorship with their respective teams.
At MM6, reversal, displacement, splicing and visible construction were developed through an anonymous studio voice across women’s, men’s and unisex wardrobes. Salomon places related questions inside performance product, where trail-running structures, protective layers and footwear engineering provide fixed functions to be revised through proportion, material and the cultural life of sport.
Disclaimer
Career history
2013
Heikki Salonen led creative direction and product design at MM6 for roughly twelve years within its anonymous public studio model. His tenure included the label’s Milan runway expansion, menswear development and continuing Salomon collaboration before he moved to Salomon in January 2026.
2011
Heikki Salonen was managing Diesel women’s collections by June 2011 and was publicly described as design head at Diesel Female. Spring/Summer 2012 was identified as his first offering; the exact transition into his later OTB role remains unresolved.
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