HELSINKI – Yes, I’ve chosen that title because it describes my city perfectly. Little Finland with it’s very little capital called Helsinki. The centre is so small you can actually walk it through in an hour.
I lived in New York for a while and when I asked the locals what they knew about Finland. Answers were; polar bears, cold and Mika Häkkinen. Well, we actually don’t have polar bears and we have 4 seasons. But yeah, about 6 months in a year it gets pretty cold.
It was funny how little people knew about my home country. We are between Sweden and Russia and everyone knows those two countries very well. I guess we drown in between.
I think people will be surprised how great Helsinki is when it comes to fashion. In recent years we have thrived. In fashion world people already know Marimekko. It was founded in 1951 and it is still going strong. Samuji is young but it has got noticed already around the world.
But enough talking about the brands and let focus on the citizens. Because this place is very small you get the chance to get noticed more quickly. Especially in Helsinki people have more courage when it comes to personal style. People show their personalities through style, not with current trends, but with their own personal input. And I love that. This place is full of individuals with strong personalities.
The one bad thing is that that majority doesn’t really know about that. Because those people with that great, rare individual style doesn’t blog or show it off in media outlets. The popular Finnish blogs aren’t mostly that inspiring. You can’t see the real Finnish style through them. That is my opinion and some people will disagree. But if you Google top Finnish fashion blogs and click first five blog links open and you will see my point. They look all the same. I hope this will change in time. After all we Finns are evolving constantly with our sense of style and fashion. But we do have this website called Hell-Looks. A source of inspiration. It’s a street style blog were you can see the actual Finnish street style. The kind that I was talking about, the daring kind, the underdogs who will surprise you.
Nita Karoliina – Nita-karoliina
