diff --git a/src/pytorch_ie/core/hf_hub_mixin.py b/src/pytorch_ie/core/hf_hub_mixin.py
index e485d85a..f066f7aa 100644
--- a/src/pytorch_ie/core/hf_hub_mixin.py
+++ b/src/pytorch_ie/core/hf_hub_mixin.py
@@ -416,14 +416,21 @@ def _from_pretrained(
         config: Optional[dict] = None,
         **model_kwargs,
     ) -> TModel:
+
+        config = (config or {}).copy()
+        config.update(model_kwargs)
+        if cls.config_type_key is not None:
+            config.pop(cls.config_type_key)
+        model = cls(**config)
+
         """Load Pytorch pretrained weights and return the loaded model."""
         if os.path.isdir(model_id):
             logger.info("Loading weights from local directory")
-            model_file = os.path.join(model_id, cls.weights_file_name)
+            model_file = os.path.join(model_id, model.weights_file_name)
         else:
             model_file = hf_hub_download(
                 repo_id=model_id,
-                filename=cls.weights_file_name,
+                filename=model.weights_file_name,
                 revision=revision,
                 cache_dir=cache_dir,
                 force_download=force_download,
@@ -433,12 +440,6 @@ def _from_pretrained(
                 local_files_only=local_files_only,
             )
 
-        config = (config or {}).copy()
-        config.update(model_kwargs)
-        if cls.config_type_key is not None:
-            config.pop(cls.config_type_key)
-        model = cls(**config)
-
         model.load_weights(model_file, map_location=map_location, strict=strict)
 
         return model