Helsinki is a fashion city

A newsletter called Helsinki Report will be your new destination for news and stories about the Finnish fashion and design scene. Welcome!

Nov 26, 2024

Helsinki (well ok, Espoo technically) is the home to Aalto University’s world-famous fashion school that spits out creative talent to the famous fashion houses of Paris and Milan.

Helsinki obviously hosts Helsinki Design Week, the pioneering city festival of design that celebrates its 20th anniversary next year.

Helsinki is also the home amazing fashion companies like Marimekko and to IP juggernauts such as Moomin Characters. There are hundreds of interesting small companies, entrepreneurs, designers, retailers, movers and shakers working in fashion, design or something so creative that it is still yet to be defined.

My name is Jani Niipola, I am a writer and PR consultant living in Helsinki, Finland and Florence, Italy. (Long story.)

As a journalist I have been covering fashion and the creative industries for Finnish business media for years.

When talking with colleagues from Sweden, Italy or Denmark the issue is always the same. Finland is interesting, Helsinki is buzzing and yet:

“Where can I find news in English about the Finnish fashion scene?”

Well, here.

This is the simple mission of my new newsletter Helsinki Report: to create an outlet of news in English on fashion and design and culture in Helsinki and the Nordics.

Welcome to Helsinki Report, let’s talk business.

No joke – Makia Clothing hits the jackpot with a collaboration with Finnish comedy legends

Even Makia x Kummeli posters turned out to be a hit. An early indication of the record sales of the collection was that the posters were stolen around Helsinki.

Finnish streetwear brand Makia made a splash this fall by announcing not one but two legend-level collaborations. Founded in Helsinki in 2001 Makia of course is known for their platform-like collaboration business: making merchandise collections of streetwear staples for a multitude of collaborators.

Their archive of collabs is almost exhausting. In 23 years Makia has worked with over a hundred brands from Finnish classics like lock (and key) maker Abloy to international streetwear labels like SF royalty HUF.

Their first collaboration of the fall was a real treat. A collection with famous Helsinki restaurants Sea Horse (my personal favorite of the genre), Lehtovaara and Elite.

These are quintessential establishments of the Finnish capital. All three are restaurants with rich history and a famous clientele of politicians, artists and other notable personalities.

As a nod to the cultural heritage, the promo shoots starred three Finnish actors.

Actor Lauri Tilkanen (above in Lehtovaara).

Actor Pekka Strang (above in Elite).

Actress Minka Kuustonen (above in Sea Horse)

Nineties nostalgia

It was their second offering that hit the jackpot.

Kummeli is a Finnish sketch comedy show of the 1990’s. The show was an anomaly of sorts. A bunch of musicians and actors from Tampere created videos of jokes that made the guys themselves laugh. A tape was sent to national broadcasting company Yle and eventually a series was sold: the first Kummeli episodes were aired in the summer of 1991.

This was not the funniest time in modern Finnish history.

The beginning – and success – of Kummeli coincided with the economic depression of the early 1990’s in Finland. In retrospect, bankruptcies and even worse personal tragedies can be reflected against Kummeli, a rare bright spot of catchphrases and weird characters in Finnish television. Kummeli is the inside joke of a country, and one of the most popular TV series in the history of Finland.

Heikki Silvennoinen, a musician, actor and one the creators of Kummeli.

On Friday November 1st in 2024 Makia and Kummeli launched their collaboration. The collection was selection of t-shirts, longsleeves and other typical streetwear merch pieces in classic Makia fashion.

It was an instant hit.

After the first 36 hours the sales were counted in six figures. (Most pieces are sold out as you read this.)

Makia broke records in its own webstore – which was just one of the channels.

Heikki Silvennoinen and Timo Kahilainen of Kummeli.

Makia’s Totti Nyberg, the Chief Creative Officer parent company of Manna & Co, only hints at the complexity of making the collaboration with multiple stakeholders.

Then again, the payoff is good.

“The sale of our Kummeli collaboration exceeded all our expectations. Even though Makia's end of the year has been strong and sales have increased in all categories, Kummeli's collaboration collection sold more during the first weekend than collaboration collections in general during the entire season”, says Totti Nyberg.

Sales in six figures racked in a couple of weeks is a huge boost for a boutique streetwear company with an annual revenue of about 12 million euros.

“Finland needs positivity”

Kummeli was born in a very dark time. It is happening again, as they say.

“The success perhaps indicates that Finland needs positivity in dark times right now and a reason to laugh more than ever”, Totti Nyberg says.

Timo Kahilainen, an actor, musician and one the creators of Kummeli with a knit sweater of the legendary “Tonnin seteli” sketch.

Makia’s creative team worked on the Kummeli collection with two of the show’s original creators, actors and musicians Timo Kahilainen and Heikki Silvennoinen. Famous Kummeli sketches that have been etched into the brain of several generations of Finns (and even become international memes) were given their own merchandise.

“The themes of the collection were very carefully planned and carefully executed, and the collaboration with Timo and Hessu went seamlessly”, Nyberg says.

Generally speaking, a fashion collaboration is a strategic partnership between two or more entities – such as brands, designers, celebrities, or artists – combining their unique styles, expertise, or audiences to create limited-edition products that generate excitement, expand reach, and elevate brand identity.

This collaboration and its financial success push the envelope on what kind of brands or cultural phenomena are fit for a fashion business collaboration. Pushing the envelope of course, is classic Makia.

“It's great to see that both Kummeli and Makia are alive and well. This collection underlines Makia's ability to constantly surprise its target audience with new ideas and innovative collections”, Totti Nyberg says.

Exit through the gift shop: Amos Rex gets ready for a new year

Helsinki is also a museum city. One of Helsinki’s more progressive museums is Amos Rex, a relative newcomer (opened in its current form in 2018) in the city of over 80 museums.

Amos Rex just announced their program for 2025. You know there will be more, but here are the nearest hits.

Here is how Amos Rex describes their three announced exhibitions of 2025:

Anna Estarriola’s (above) art the borders of what is possible and impossible become ambiguous and our ways of perceiving reality are examined from many different vantage points and perspectives.

2 April – 31 August 2025

Finnish artist Enni-Kukka Tuomala creates the exhibition Expanding Empathies, an experimental space for encounters, spoken and unspoken connection and self-contemplation.