During my studies in Finland I have "Get International" course where I have an opportunity to meet new cultures and know more about Finnish culture in particular and one of the workshop I attended was connected with Finnish design I definitely had no idea about, because all I knew about Finnish design was famous mobile brand Nokia. This workshop opened for me world of Finish fashion.
Sometimes here in Turku and in my Instagram stories I have seen advertisings of “Marimekko”, but I had no idea what it is. During this workshop I found out that this is a famous Finnish brand that produces clothes and besides very good quality clothes. Teacher showed us a shirt from “Marimekko” that her mother still wears, it is dated from 1970s, but it looks like it was purchased recently! In Russia we do not have this brand, but teacher told us, that it is very popular in Japan. It surprised me, because Japan is so far away and my country is so near, why we do not have these shops?
Also, teacher told us that the origin of egg-shaped chairs comes from Finland. It was created by one Finnish designer, but, unfortunately, I forgot his name. I have seen such chairs in IKEA, so now I know that they are not Swedish invention :)
What was also surprising that there is a Finnish fashion brand called "Ivana Helsinki" that was the first Nordic company ever to participate both in the Paris fashion week and New-York fashion week. I have never heard about this brand before, so I was confused why there is a word "Ivana" in the naming and whether it's connected somehow with the ex-wife of USA president Donald Trump. It turned out that this brand has nothing to do with Ivana Trump, but, albeit there was a suing process in 2010 when "Ivana Helsinki" was sued by Ivana Trump for trademark infringement for using her first name "Ivana". They subsequently reached a settlement, with the company agreeing to amend their logo and paying a huge sum of money and now "Ivana Helsinki" is represented by a different name in America.
In the end of the workshop we visited local shop that sells kitchen utensils and saw there part of all the things the teacher told us about. There were plenty of beautiful items, but most of them are really expensive.
All in all, now I know some typical features of Finnish design: minimalistic, usable, durable and simple, but original, and also worldwide-known and I like it.