fashion blog

You've seen me talk about it trough the years - my love for autumn. I do enjoy all seasons (except perhaps for spring, as spring in Finland often turns out rather not only short but non-existent; two months of disappointment. Sadly), but while I always long for a short (hah!) snowy winter and feel most alive during summer autumn still turns out to be my favourite time of year. And this year it has been magical! Like you would have wanted to walk around with your mouth open all the time and just do a constant 'Wow!'.   Ah, the light, and all the colours! My colours for this autumn turns out to be plum and dark blue. And all things checked and plaid, as usual. But the bye-bye to all of this this is around the corner; the inevitable will soon come – no more light, no more colours. It's a good thing we have candles, fairy lights and red wine to battle the Mordor-months with! Bring it on!

Today it's the gloomy Halloweenish weather one would expect with mid-October approaching (already! What? How?), but yesterday we woke up to a breathtaking colourful frosty sunrise that I even tossed out barefoot for to try and catch with my phone - The view to the south is often like a painting. This is also the bathroom view, and one day eventually the view from the study-to-be; the brown room which for the moment is just (you guessed it): boxes. Colourful trees to the west! And the old barn of the farm peeking from behind them. The study will be the only room in the house, apart from the living room, with windows in two directions. That actually makes it the nicest room in the house. This, plus an apple tree in the front, would be the view from the second window. Amazing colours to the north! And the rising sun in the east. I really love crips autumn mornings like this, when the air is fresh and cold and the light makes everything magic.  But give it a month and we will be up ea

Last spring before I went to France I quickly made this yellow ochre-coloured A-line skirt (like, the actual night before, because that is what insane people like me do in order to maintain a maximum stress level). I had had the fabric waiting in my to-do pile of fabrics for a few of years already and decided it would make a great and comfy travel skirt. With large pockets, of course. Skirt-show-off walking, as one does. Dark yellow is a strangely versatile colour that pairs well with many others, and I especially like it with wine red. Maximising the level of autumn-points. Photos by my friend Asko Rantanen / Asko Jonathan Photography  who takes amazingly creative pictures.

Today I am traveling to Strasbourg to perform at a festival (at Elsass Rock & Jive) in warm and sunny weather! So, logically I thought I’d look back some six months ago to to a very different kind of season, festival and ambience - Paola Suhonen’s SuperWood Festival. The very first Superwood took place late last October just east of the Helsinki city centre in a now hotel, then 1960’s bank conference building; Hotel Rantapuisto. In all it’s 60’s design glory is a prefect base for the event, which, as one would expect when created by Paola Suhonen / Ivana Helsinki, mixes music, art, design and Finnish nature. It’s a rather grown up festival, in a good way, with nice dining and movie screenings - forget muddy fields and tents, and enjoy lounge bar concerts with a living room feeling design hotel rooms - with a twist of spooky woodland vibe: (Photo credits at the end of the post) I only attended the first night but immediately regretted not booking the whole weekend. I managed to

Eddi is in Iran for a month, and I am working on a lot of projects, but I've tried to come up with some bigger and smaller quality-time things for me and Dag to do when possible. We've played some word games and made late night apple pie, and the other day we went to  Linnanmäki with my sisters and their boys. The amusement park normally closes after summer, or is open just a few hours in the afternoon, but throws a light carneval each October with evening opening hours and different programs and light installations. (Light is an often recurring theme -and subject- in  happenings over here , as we tend to go towards darker days, and there is an acute lack of it...) Last time we went to the  Light Carnival was three years ago  when Dag was just a baby. The park really looks pretty with all the lights of the attractions on (in summer it is so light so they don't really show) as well as the trees illuminated, led-light infused cotton candy, and light installations and performa

I went to a Octoberfest-themed party in the weekend and dressed inspired by myself in 1983. (Even though I remembered my tiny dirndl had the colours the other way around, with a red skirt.) I did not have that much time to put together an outfit and also wanted one just inspired by the look of a dirndl, not to create one. But if there's a next time I'll sew myself a pair of high waisted lederhosen-inspired suspender shorts (or skirt) instead! This is a selfmade skirt and the waistcoat/corselette is one I use on stage as part of a very differently themed outfit. This was also a great opportunity to get to use one of my petticoats! I seldom wear them nowadays. I should go to parties more often I guess (not just perform at them).

I was working from home today and took a long lunch break to go out on a little adventurous walk with Dag. He had all his gear with him, and warned me not to step on the fallen leaves, as those would trap you and suck you right down to the hot lava core of earth. (Good to know!) It got a bit colder here in between and nature shifted colours so quickly - but now wonder; it's almost October by now! Autumn textures. Autumn leaves. Autumn trees.  We sat down on a rock for a little picnic. The cats joined in; they often follow us around when out on walks!  Everything tastes better when outdoors. The sandwhich was so big for Dag he had to close his eyes in order to eat it. And then we continued our little afternoon adventure in search of magic trees, watching out for dangerous rock-bombs dropping from the sky, evil cows and all the other things the vivid imagination of a four year old can come up with.

It's that time of the year! The beret is out and the poncho is on and you can totally wrap yourself in it and there are apples everywhere: It's autumn!