the urban sewing blog

Subscribe to our blog to get all the latest seamster news!

 Subscribe in a reader / subscribe by email

---------------

MelA goes to Finland

I just got back from a work trip to Helsinki, where I had one full day to myself to shop, eat, drink, and shop my way around the town!

First of all, Helsinki is absolutely beautiful. It is clean and full of history. The people are sweet, polite, kind, honest, trusting, and all around lovely. They are so freakin’ cute and fashionable – everyone, and I mean everyone, was hip and stylish, making individual fashion statements (some louder than others). Even coming from San Francisco, where fashion statements are the native tongue, I was really impressed! This was my first trip out of the US (yes, really!) and I couldn’t have asked for a better place to visit.

The food and the sites were fantastic, but let’s cut right to the good stuff: The Shopping! Helsinki is bursting at the seams with local clothing designers and they are doing some amazing stuff. I toured an area called the Design District and visited as many stores as possible. If you are ever in the area (you know, just passing through the arctic circle or something…), you must check this out!

With 170 stores on 25 streets, I clearly couldn’t make it to all of them. Many of them feature new clothing, with fresh ideas that I haven’t seen in the US very much. Items that you pull off the rack and have to look at from various angles to figure out how you would put it on and how the silhouette would look on a body. Serious sculpture!

The woman at Liike was super friendly and let me choose a CD to listen to while I browsed. It is a compilation of Finnish musicians performing mixtures of electronic and live instruments. It is a chill mix called Helsinki Cooler Volume 2. It is pretty tremendous.

I found several stores that were all about refashioning, which of course I was in love with. My favorite was this place called Limbo. I couldn’t wipe the silly smile off my face the whole time I was shopping! A mix of local designers’ wares are featured here and color abounds! At Limbo and at Secco (keep reading…), designers are selling these avant-garde handbags made from vintage fabrics and telephones! Too cute.

Another of my favorite refashioning boutiques was Secco, Treasures of a Wasteland. This store had some amazing reworked clothing, accessories, and home items and you can even shop on their website.

And last, but in no way possible, least was the best thrift store in town. UFF is Finland’s Goodwill or Salvation Army. I bought a bunch of cute dresses here and didn’t break the bank! This is not part of the Design District, but it was in my travel book and I made a point to find it. Well, well worth it.

Going half way around the world and being blown away by the passion for funk and fashion made me realize how small the world really is.

Proud to be an earthling,

MelA

— Melissa A.

Comment

Commenting is closed for this article.