Belt twist

Last night was so full of dancing that my feet are killing me today; a perfectly good enough reason to stay in bed all day long. I attended my friends' housewarming party and from there we went to the totally crowded local indie club to dance the night away.

Since the first snow is now only a distant memory, I decided to wear my platform studded sandals for the party. I constructed the night's outfit around this wrinkled T-shirt bought from Sweden and added a belt over it. The studded belt looks really great with the shirt but when I got my hands on this second hand treasure, thanks to my friend Minna, playing a little bit more with the belt idea was in order. After a few twists with this ubercool double belt, I ended up making it look like a gun holster by throwing it over the shoulder and tying it around my waist. The end result is pretty neat, don't you think?

Wrinkled T-shirt: MTWTFSS
Wet look leggings: American Apparel
Sandals: Urban Originals
Studded belt: Suomen paras vyökauppa
Double belt: Second hand
Bowler hat: Uniformal Warehouse

Fashion blast from the past

One of my favorite threads on The Fashionspot forums is the Vintage Ads Archive which features advertising campaigns from the past (circa 60's- 80')s. Looking at these images just proves the fact that fashion really moves in cycles. It seems that the designers of today are just recycling the old designs; I can spot Stella McCartney, Balmain, Givenchy, Alexander Wang and Ann Demeulemeester snapping ideas from the images below. The funny thing is, without the crazy hair and makeup I could probably rock all these beautiful outfits this fall, especially that crazy leather dress.

All images from TFS

Black celebration

I have literally slept only three hours last night since the night's festivities continued until 7 am. I had a really fun time dancing to indie tunes and hanging out with my friends. The outfit and make-up inspiration came to me while browsing through the Elle runway collections of fall/winter 08/09. My eyes focused once again to Givenchy's oh so black RTW collection. I honestly think I will forever be inspired by Riccardo Tisci's creations, the man is truly a genious.


The blazer and white button-up are purchases from Sweden and when I got them I did actually have Givenchy in mind. I was gonna wear the platform sandals to the club but the snowstorm outside told me otherwise. Winter has finally arrived to Finland.

Source: Style.com

Blazer: MTWTFSS
Buttonup shirt: MTWTFSS
Wet look leggings: Gina Tricot
Sandals: Urban Originals
OTK boots: Bronx

Everything from Eastern style to photoshoots

The other day and today have been extremely busy. We finally finished the photo shoot for the Etsy store few hours ago and I have to say, modeling is really hard work! A big hand to our photographer Satu and model Minna for helping to create lovely images for the selling lines.

The reason why Thursday was so busy is that I attended a photograph exhibition at a local art gallery called East Side stories. The exhibition portrays a trip of Liisa Jokinen from Hel-looks, photographer Juliana Harkki and stylist Salli Raeste to Eastern Finland through images of people's styles and places in the East. If you live in or visit Tampere, it's definitely something worth experiencing.

After the exhibition my boyfriend and I joined the exhibitors for a dinner and continued our evening at our friends' place. I wore a black sweater bought from Sweden with leather patches and my new OTK boots which I absolutely adore. Here are some images from last night, everyone was dressed so fancy.

From right: Liisa Jokinen, Juliana Harkki and Salli Raeste

From right: my friend Laura, Liisa Jokinen and me
Photo above by: Juliana Harkki

I also asked Satu to photograph the outfit in the studio as well.

Photos by: Satu Kemppainen

Sweater: Sunday Sun
Boots: Bronx
Ring: Stockmann

OTK love

Thanks to a very aware anonymous reader who had spotted these amazing boots in the Andiamo shoe store's window, I am now a proud owner of a pair of leather OTK boots. Thank you so much for the help; my mission came to a happy end. The sales lady was kind enough to give me some shoe care products and these cool inflatable boot trees. They are every shoe lover's dream toys.

Boots: Bronx

Alexander McQueen for Target

will be launched in March 2009...

Source: Stylezeitgeist

It's little things like this and Pink's hotdogs that make me wish I was still in California...

Japanese whisper

Hands up, who went to H&M for the CDG last Thursday? After reading crazy stories about fashion hungry folks fighting for the pieces on TFS and other discussion boards, it seems that the opening was rather calm in my city. There were only about 15 people hanging around at 9 am, no line, no hassle. I had the jacket, white ruffle shirt and color block sweater in mind and was actually able to get my hands on two of the latter. As I stated before, the polka dot thing was not really my cup of tea as those and the drop-crotch pants were the most sought after items around the world. My boyfriend purchased a sweater and drop crotch pants but is unsure whether or not to keep them. I think the pants look great on girls but the drop crotch pants definitely look the best on a boyish body and with some combat boots. Well, you be the judge. This is me trying on the pants, I don't know if I actually have the body to wear these.

Sweater: Comme des Garcons for H&M
Pants: Comme des Garcons for H&M
Shoes: Urban Originals

Today I almost tossed my camera out the window because shooting in the dark sucks. Does anyone know how to take good and clear pictures indoors with the Canon G9? I've not managed to do that yet, though there has been several attempts.

The boot dilemma: OTK boots

The sun is starting to set here at 4pm which has made it impossible to take pictures without any decent light. As it leaves much more time for internet surfing, I have been obsessively looking for a perfect pair of over the knee (OTK) boots. While browsing through the Givenchy's spring/summer 09 collection, their OTK boots made my hunger grow.

Source: Style.com

Ebay has some vintage pairs to offer but majority of the time the prices get a bit too high or the size is not right. I almost jumped from my seat when my lovely boyfriend linked me these OTK boots with a zipper from Yesstyle.

Source: Yesstyle

However, PU as a material worries me as the weather is getting colder and I've had an experience with a pair of boots that had cracked when the temperature hit -20C (yes, it does get that cold here sometimes). I'm also worried about the possible customs and tax that might affect the purchase (anyone have any experience with ordering from Hong Kong?). After surfing some more in the wonderful world of internet, I found a couple of interesting pairs from Bianco Footwear. They both seem quite perfect but the price is still rather high for my taste.

Source: Bianco

If any of you dear readers know a good online store where I could get a pair of OTK boots that actually ship to Europe, are leather and not overly priced, please help a girl in need. I will also check a local store here since my trusted salesperson emailed me that might have something I'm looking for. I got my Bullboxer platform booties there after his recommendation and those have been my most worn pair of shoes this year. Hopefully my search will come to a happy end.

Etsy update

Last Saturday Ranna and I had a little photo shoot for the autumn/winter lookbook of Tell Me a Story Vintage. I don't want to reveal too much yet but here are a few teasers for you to enjoy.

Photos by Satu Kemppainen

Our fantastic and ever so talented photographer Satu Kemppainen took some amazingly beautiful shots; I promise you this autumn/winter lookbook will be great! You could have never guessed that it was freezing cold and raining, that's how well they turned out. Next week we are hitting the studio with Satu and our model Minna, so new items should be listed in our store within then next couple of weeks or so.

Make it work

Even though my work place (an office) doesn't have a tight dress code, I still feel that there is a "work me" compared to the "normal me". My strategy with all the jobs I've had has always been to go formal first and bit by bit start bringing more "me" into the work outfits. It has taken about a year that I have had the courage to start wearing what I wear now at work; I still have to restrain my inner rock chick to stay at home. Even today I felt somewhat of a burn in my back while wearing this blazer, jeans and platform booties combo. It's funny because my boyfriend said the outfit reminds him of a teacher which is actually not too far fetched; my mother, who is a teacher, used to wear a very similar grey blazer back in the 80's/90's. So what's all the fuss about?

Blazer: MTWTFSS
Shirt: Marlene Schön by Ellos
Jeans: Cheap Monday
Platform booties: Bullboxer

"Someone always playing corporation games,
Who cares they're always changing corporation names,
We just want to dance here, someone stole the stage,
They call us irresponsible, write us off the page"

Ecoluxury

Being a huge fan of Scandinavian fashion, meeting the Finnish born fashion designer Camilla Norrback while in Sweden, had a great importance to me. Her brand has been a pioneer in "ecoloxury", a term that has been widely used but in fact, originated from her. In Camilla's words "ecoluxury is modern luxury with an ecological point of view"; most of her clothes are produced from environmentally friendly, renewable raw materials. A good example were buttery soft leggings which I would have never guessed being made of recycled PET bottles. How can something so rough and ugly turn into something so comfortable and pretty?

Source: Camilla Norrback

While visiting her boutique, Camilla promised us a -25% discount from her collection. I obviously couldn't leave empty handed, and this Art deco/80's inspired dress was mine to keep. According to Camilla, her clothes make the wearer feel both beautiful and proud which with, I have to agree. I wore the dress to Saturday night's indie club feeling both beautiful and proud; not only had I bought an amazing dress but it was also a very wise purchase.

The button of the dress is made from the finest quality leather and in a Swedish factory that also manufactures the leather straps of Louis Vuitton bags. How cool is that?

Dress: Camilla Norrback
Shoes: Urban Originals
Clutch: Bianco

Camilla at her boutique

They are here!

They arrived last week and I'm in love...

Shoes: Urban Originals

The picture you see, is no portrait of me

Photo by ©Jussi Hakonen

This picture is one of the few that the camera had captured of me whilst on the boat to Sweden. I was unaware of how the images turned out until I had seen this one that the photographer had sent me. To my dismay, the artist behind the lens wanted to use this image for his re-opened website and since I rarely take any headshots, that I’m actually pleased with, I allowed the request.

Tartan Week

Maria from Chic o Chuc contacted me that she started a new style community called Chicisimo and wanted to add my style pictures to the site; I gave her the greenlight as there was really no hesitation. The site works a bit like Chictopia; stylish girls all around the world can share their style and give "chic-it" points to each other. This week they are having a tartan week, so I decided to dress accordingly. This vintage 1980's Adrienne Vittadini tartan/plaid dress is a recent purchase from eBay and I have to say, not only does it fit the theme perfectly, it is also my new fall favorite.

Dress: Adrienne Vittadini, vintage
Platform booties: Bullboxer
Hat: Uniformal Warehouse
Ring: Stockmann