Global Trend Report '08 - Helsinki

Finnish boys are currently shunning color. The only acceptable color is in accents such as scarves or anything made by Henrik Vibskov. Otherwise boys like to camouflage themselves to fit the city surroundings, and the most popular tones for clothes are black, gray, and brown. Fur hats were big a century ago, when it was shit-cold in Finland, and while the snowy days are gone now, fur hats are back. Thanks to global warming (or something) we can now pair our furry hats with ankle-length trousers, a tank top, and a light trench coat right in the middle of winter. Whoopty doo!

We’re seeing a lot more adult goths too. To be more precise, it’s kind of a Eurogoth look. Boys are covering themselves completely in shiny black stuff and little creepy drips of flair like gloves, sunglasses, and berets (shudder). Instead of belts, they pull their pants up high and hold them there with suspenders. Shoelaces as belts are a common sight too. Tacky white sport socks with leather shoes and a bomber jacket is another Finnish twist. In fact, that’s Finnish fashion in a nutshell: You never know if they did it on purpose or by mistake.

For girls, the 1950s look is big, but it’s sort of 50s by way of the 80s, like Grease 2. Finnish girls are famous for being low maintenance when it comes to beauty stuff, but nowadays the hair is perfectly curled, their nails are manicured, their lips are painted bright red, and their heels are matched to their purse. They are put together like brick walls.

Girls here are competing to see who can do the weirdest shit with their hair, like the all-the-way-around-your-head helmet look. To be honest, not all of these hairdos are great. But in Helsinki looking cool is more valued than looking hot, if you know what we mean. Like for instance a very popular piece of clothing is a pair of synthetic PVC leggings. They’re worn as pants and they vary from being supertight to hanging baggy off your butt. Fucking weirdos.

Photos: Miika Saksi; text: Claudia Cifuentes; models: Aapo, Antti, Konsta, Maryam, Shadi, and Sonja