Sweet Christmas wishes from Finland!

And may the year 2014 bring you many happy days!

PS. When in Finland do taste Petris handmade fresh chocolates in Fiskars, Helsinki or Espoo Tapiola. The shops, selections and news you find here:

http://petris.fi/

Photo@Paula Hietaranta

Finnish Design in a new bright light

Pop! Pop! 

What is it? Did you hear it? 

Is it the sound of bubbles bursting? 

Pop! There they go – our illusions of the superiority of Finnish Design. 

The design journalist Hannu Pöppönen has done a huge job in researching the myths and reality of the Finnish design and written a book about it. 

Designkuplia, suomalaisen muotoilun ilmiöitä (Design bubbles, the phenomena of Finnish Design) reveals interesting aspects about the successes of bygone days and unsuccessful fights of today: what the famous Finnish Design was, what it is now, and where it is going? 

One of reasons to the failure making our new design the success it deserves is that the Finns can be silent in many languages. And that is a major minus in today´s world, if you want to get the audience´s attention. 

Luckily there are some fresh winds blowing already but let´s hope that the Finnish Design is not an Noah´s Ark where only the Angry Birds are bringing the twigs of hope.

Hannu Pöppönen: Designkuplia is published by A? Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, and lovely illustrated by Samuli Saarinen.
The book is available in Helsinki for example at Akateeminen Kirjakauppa, Design Museum, Kiasma shop and Aalto ARTS Books -kirjakauppa, Hämeentie 135 C, 6. krs. (Open Mon-Thur 11 ap-4 pm, Fri 11 am to 3 pm.)
Or you can simply order it here

https://www.taik.fi/kirjakauppa/ 
Photo©Paula Hietaranta

Mari Keto: beauty with an attitude

Memento mori butterfly boxes, huge celebrity portraits made of sparkling rhinestones, IT bag hunting trophies named Fashion Victims, and as a cherry on the cake the pearl portrait of Her Majesty The Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, ordered by the Danish Royal Collection and now in the possession of artist. 

The new exhibition of Mari Keto is a heavy-light combination of beauty, sadness and anger. Her way from a jewellery designer to an artist working with the utmost perfection without losing her soul and heaviness of the message has taken years. 

Now you have the rare opportunity to see her works before they disappear into museums, collector´s homes and bank vaults.

Queen of Pearls and Pearls of the Queen, 2012.

Showroom Helsinki´s gallerist Tuomas Zetterbeg, Delirium (2013) 

and Mari Keto at the opening of the exhibition.

Photo©Paula Hietaranta

Mari Keto: Delirium at Showroom Helsinki Telakkaranta is open until December 15th. Opening hours are Wed 4pm-7pm, Fri noon-5pm, Sun noon-3pm, and also by appointment. Address is Telakkakatu 6, 00150 Helsinki.

www.showroomhelsinki.com

www.mariketo.com

Simply hot

Red - the power color of Finnish fashion. For women and men.

Here you see the evening dress by Jukka Rintala, who really knows how to dress women beautifully.

www.jukkarintala.fi

 

Our international fashion model Suvi Koponen wearing evening dress by Anna Ruohonen as seen in the Gloria fashion show. Anna is as well known internationally: she has shops of her own both in Helsinki and Paris.

www.annaruohonen.com

 

Really hot Turo Tailor/Red Label corduroy suit, vest and shirt by Anssi Tuupainen.

Photos Leena Aro/Scanfotos

One night to go...

... and then Starbucks is here!

First news about the world-famous coffeehouse chain opening a coffeeshop in the centre of Helsinki came in May, and tomorrow is a lucky day to all fans: it is ready to open the doors.

Today charming Iiris was offering the first temptations of candy flavored coffees at the ground floor of Akateeminen kirjakauppa, the corner of Pohjoisesplanadi and Keskuskatu.

Photo©Paula Hietaranta

Artist Cris af Enehielm and her book favorites

Show me your bookcase so I tell who you are. 

(Well, this saying is not so valid any more because nowadays we can read books quite privately on our reading devices.) 

Anyway, the old idea of books as mirrors of the personality is not entirely gone – Cecil  Hagelstam, the owner of an antiquarian bookshop in Helsinki, lets each month a well-known Finnish person to choose their favorites from the selves of his bookshop. 

In November we see the display window with the favorites of the artist Cris af Enehielm.

Her choices tell us that she likes Chekhov and Dostojevsky, Hesse and Kafka, Jouko Turkka and Tove Jansson, Zen Buddhism and history of art. 

Many of them are finds you cannot find any more at bookshops, because the life of new books is nowadays shorter than the life of a butterfly. 

But there are always old books to stay and keep their unique, priceless value. You just might find them here.

C. Hagelstamin Antikvaarinen Kirjakauppa

(C.Hagelstam International Bibliophilic Antiquarian Bookshop) 

Fredrikinkatu 35, 00120 Helsinki.

Open Mon-Fri 10 am AM to 6 PM, Sat 10 AM-3 PM.

www.hagelstam-antikvariaatti.fi/en

Two wonderful fashion celebrity books

Both are available in Finnish and English. Highly recommended! 

Ivana Helsinki 15 Matkalla kotiin – Coming home (Teos) tells the 15 years old story about Paola Suhonen´s way from a Finnish fashion student to an international art-fashion-design-filmmaker personality. 

Paola is a combination of fierce energy and nostalgic feelings, and her memories about the birth of Ivana Helsinki collections are fun to read. Liisa Jokinen has done a great job in writing and editing this book, which is a collection of childhood memories, fashion stories and interviews tied together in an artistic scrapbook style. 

The only sad thing about Ivana Helsinki things is that the old designs are still so appealing but no longer available. So you have every reason to be sorry it you didn´t buy them then, because many are now collector´s items.

Rouva (Housewife) collection AW 2005. 

Paola´s  mother Senja Suhonen was one of the models.

Indian Summer SS 2012.

Ivana Helsinki 15 – Matkalla kotiin

Liisa Jokinen & Paola Suhonen

www.teos.fi

 

Grace Goddington on the cover of British Vogue, August 1962.

British Grace Goddington became a real media person after the film The September Issue was seen at cinemas four years ago. 

The movie about making American Vogue´s traditionally heavy September issue was supposed to be more or less a portrait of Vogue´s editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, but the flaming personality of magazine´s creative director Grace really got the audience´s attention, and after that the fashion wizard was world-famous. 

Grace Coddington: Elämäni muodin maailmassa (Grace: A Memoir) is a lively illustrated memoir about her long life in fashion – she started as a teenage model and is now 72 years old. It does certainly appeal everybody wanting to dive into the tempting depths and gossips of the international fashion scene from the Fifties to today. 

The photographs of her modelling days and Vogue fashion articles are nice, but the felicitous drawings by Grace really add the flair to the story! Here you see Anna Wintour, Marc Jacobs and Grace at the launching party of Grace´s book Catwalk Cats.

Grace Coddington: Elämäni muodin maailmassa 

(Grace: A Memoir) has now been translated 
into Finnish by Sini Linteri and published by 

Kustannusosakeyhtiö Nemo.

www.nemokustannus.fi

Messages from the artists

Jani Leinonen: We Are Sorry (black), 2013.
Metal, plexiglas, neon lights, 248 x 146 x 15 cm. 

There are still a few days left to see the new works by Jani Leinonen and Aurora Reinhard, two hot names of contemporary Finnish art, at the new gallery Showroom Helsinki - Telakkaranta, so hurry! The exhibition Promises is open until November 3rd. 

The gallery is open on Wednesdays and Fridays from 4pm to 8pm, on Sundays from noon to 4pm, and the address is Telakkakatu 6, 00150 Helsinki.

 

Web magazine news from Finland

The editorial staff of Tuttifrutti Magazine Helsinki: 

the managing editor Iisa and the editor in chief Pia.

Photo Henri Sinisalmi

Once upon a time...
No, not, this is not a fairytale.
Let´s begin again.
The time was this autumn when these two young Finnish mothers, Pia Hollo and Iisa Juva, decided to start a new lifestyle magazine of their own. And they did it, with the help of friends and families.
The first issue of Tuttifrutti Magazine came out last week, and you can it read here

www.tuttifruttimagazine.com 
The free web magazine is meant for families interested in trends, culture, fashion, cooking, well-being, interior decoration ideas and joy of living, and it is published 6 times a year.

PS. It has been a long way from those days when 10 years old Pia wrote and illustrated her magazine Lasten Pupu, Children´s Bunny, and dreamed to became children´s fashion editor at Vogue Bambini. 

PS2. Tutti means pacifier in Finnish.

Because I am a girl

Being a girl should not mean that you are worthless. 

Zainabu Musa is 14 years old and one of those lucky refugee girls who can read and write. She is a child but already knows how important is that girls can go to school to get a better future and perhaps even be able to change the attitudes of their community. 

The Finnish photographer Meeri Koutaniemi visited the refugee camp Tabareybarey in Niger together with children's development organisation Plan which is celebrating it´s 75th birthday this year.  

With her pictures and texts Meeri has given the voice and faces to five girls from Mali living there - teenager girls in child marriages, suffering early childbirths, raped and abandoned. 

You can now see Zainabu, Fatumata, Balkissa, Sarafau and Asa and read their stories in the exhibition in Sanomatalo Helsinki. 

And decide how you might be able to help children in need all around the world.

 

 

The exhibition Kaukana kotoa: Tabareybareyn tytöt (Far away from home: Girls of Tabareybarey) is open until October 27th in Sanomatalo, Töölönlahdenkatu 2, Helsinki.
Open Mon-Fri 7am-10 pm, Sat-Sun 9am-10pm.

www.plan.fi/koska-olen-tytto

www.plan.org

New fashion in Finland, part 7: DUSTY

There is a lot happening in the menswear fashion now in Finland. 

Marjut Uotila is a wonderful designer creating avant-garde DUSTY clothes for bold city cowboys (and why not also for cowgirls, as well). Made in Finland and sold all around the world.

Her Spring-Summer 2014 collection was presented last Saturday in Kellohalli restaurant Helsinki celebrating label´s 10th birthday.
Here are some tasty pieces. Well-thought silhouettes, lovely details, beautiful fabrics and colours. Let the pictures speak for themselves.

 

 

 

 

www.dusty.fi

Photos by Leena Aro

The new beautiful Iittala world

Mats Lönngren and Arni Aromaa from Pentagon Design Ltd are 

the men behind the soul of new Iittala flagship store.

The colourful wall of Kivi votives by Heikki Orvola welcomes you to the Iittala world in the middle of Helsinki. 

The place of the store is the old one but the interior is new. Now it is well-thought, fresh and inviting - it really confirms the power and value of good design. 

Well-known Finnish brand of tableware, cookware and home interior can now show it´s versatile selection of safe classics, hand-made art and new creations well presented in one place. 

Just pop in, wander around and enjoy!  

But watch out - you might fall into temptation to buy some adorable thing you did not even know you were lacking.

 

Mouth-blown glass birds by Oiva Toikka have now a room of their own. There you can see the metamorphosis from an egg to a bird. On the walls are Oiva´s drawings.

 A good designer is able to use even a minor disaster to create something new. The decorative spots of a big bird are dust from the factory floor.

 

If you are fed up with your Teema mugs, you might use them as lampshades...

 

Iittala Flagship Store Esplanadi, Pohjoisesplanadi 25, Helsinki. Open Mon-Fri 10am-7pm, Sat 10am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm.

www.iittala.com

Photos©Paula Hietaranta

Hello, it is time for felt!

http://vimeo.com/75330513

Felt has not been the first thing to pop into your mind during the hot weeks we have enjoyed in Finland during this summer, but now we all are ready for felt news.
The felt footwear factory Lahtiset - a family company established in 1921 by the farmer Alex Lahtinen in Jämsä - made a lucky choice some years ago asking the Finnish shoe designer Aki Choklat to create a new attitude to the hand-made felt boots.
The result has been a success. – Without Aki we would have not survived, says the grandson Jukka Lahtinen who is now running the factory with his sister Riitta.
The Vimeo film by Christian Trippe invites you to see the story of handmade felt products and the wonderful scenery of Finland, enjoy!
Check the whole Lahtiset collection – sneakers, boots and bags by Aki Choklat, new bags and backbags by Jonas Hakaniemi and the factory classics - here

www.lahtiset.fi/en

New fashion in Finland, part 6: FRENN

Happy fellows behind the new menswear label, born in Helsinki: Jarkko Kallio and Antti Laitinen. Photo©Paula Hietaranta

Oh, those lovely guys!

I have been admiring Jarkko´s bold sense of fashion and Antti´s perfect talent of tailoring for some years, and now the big day is here – yesterday they launched their own menswear label.

FRENN (the name started as Fresh Nordic Tailoring and became Frenn having the meaning and sound of a friend) is the basic garderobe for every occasion, with a twist. 

It is a bit soft, a bit rough, a lot refined - made for the urban working man who appreciates quality, comfort, style and lasting values. 

The handmade details make the whole picture complete and bring the message from those golden times when clothes were worth of keeping and cherishing. 

 

Read more about the story and ideas here

www.frenncompany.com

Fashion photos © Lauri Eriksson

Since the beginning of September FRENN is available in these shops in Helsinki:

THE MEN by My o My, Erottajankatu 9,

Sauma, Bulevardi 14, and

Acolyth, Iso Roobertinkatu 40.

The Silky Way of Marja Kurki

 The scarf Pieniä unelmia (Dreamlike Life), 55 x 55 cm.

The opening night of Marja Kurki flagship store in Helsinki. A lot of guests, friends and associates, smiles and chatter. Glass, mirrors, lovely colors and shine of silk scarves, ties, bags, umbrellas...
And there in the middle of the shop stands a happy lady, Marja Kurki herself, and a bit further away stands a happy man, her son Tapani Kurki, CEO of Marja Kurki Ltd.
You know the story about a man who sold sand to Sahara? Well, Marja Kurki is the lady who sold – and the company still does - Chinese silk to China.

It all started almost 40 years ago, when Marja Kurki got fascinated in silk and decided to design silk accessories for women and men.

There has been a lot of water running in Vantaanjoki since then, but now Marja Kurki company is again a family owned business, doing well.

Cheers to the successful future of the Finnish Design and Marja Kurki!

 

Marja Kurki Shop, Pohjoisespladi 25-27, 00100 Helsinki.

www.marjakurki.com
Photos©Paula Hietaranta