The story
On 12 June 2026 the Franz Raver collection "Mu..hõbevalged..juured" ("My..silver-white..roots") took the stage of the Antonius fashion show at the Estonian National Museum. Designer Susanna Peters's work tells of family, of skills passed down between generations, and of the value clothes gain over time.
The collection's starting point is a black satin dress sewn by Susanna's great-grandmother in 1935. Kept in the family to this day, the dress was worn by her grandmother in her time, and on the museum's runway Susanna wore it herself. So the garment that began the whole story stood on stage beside the new collection.
"I find it remarkable that my great-grandmother could create something so well made and so timelessly elegant that it has survived to this day. She worked as a seamstress at a time when materials and means were scarce, yet her work lives on in its fourth generation," says Susanna.
The details and cut of the great-grandmother's dress were given a new, contemporary interpretation in the collection. "Mu..hõbevalged..juured" carries forward a respect for craftsmanship, for considered cuts, and for clothes whose meaning grows with the memories attached to them.
Presenting this family story at the Estonian National Museum gave the collection a particular context. In the place that keeps our shared cultural memory, one family's heritage came before the audience, worn and reshaped into new work.
A dress that has lasted more than ninety years invites us to ask why some clothes stay with us for decades. Beyond good material and good sewing, a personal bond counts too: the wish to wear a garment, to care for it, to keep it and to pass it on.
These values guide Franz Raver's work today. We make clothes mostly to order, to avoid overproduction. We choose materials deliberately, take care to use them as fully as possible, and create garments that can be cared for and worn for a long time. The same approach connects "Mu..hõbevalged..juured" with our everyday work on team and corporate wear.
At the Antonius fashion show the collection received the HOPP Disain special prize, which brought with it the chance to show the work to the public in a gallery pop-up. We are glad that this personal story resonated and can continue beyond the runway.
"Mu..hõbevalged..juured" carries an idea we want to pass on through everything Franz Raver makes: a garment's value lies also in how long it is worn, and in how much it comes to mean to the one who wears it.
