My double life as a Finnish woman living in the States, traveling home every summer, gives me great opportunities to learn about indie design in different parts of the world. Where ever I go, the goal is to see if the city has their "young indie designer stores" ready to be explored. This summer I have found some definitive niceness and cool surprises in a small town called Evesham in England and in Tallinn which is the capital of Estonia. And the adventure goes on here in Helsinki as we speak! I google "indie design", "young designers", "local indie crafts/fashion", "sustainable fashion", "slow fashion" or "indie fashion store" and just try to find as many leeds as possible. Sometimes the internet doesn't help, and the best way turns out to be the sweetest: just walking around the town and asking people. Often finding one store or a studio helps in finding more, since indie designers seem to be generous about telling about their co-designers!
The pink and yellow is a shirt that wanted to move in with me from Evesham, England. The store where it used to live was a sweet little co-op of many (8 if I remember right) different style indie crafters or vintage lovers. This particular shirt was made by a beautiful lady who happened to be in the store as we visited. I love the bright colors and the fact that she makes it all out of scrap pieces, left overs or second hand fabrics, and uses tricot, like me! Also, the simple arches just make it somehow very pretty.
The black and grey is a super stylish shirt from Reet Aus, an Estonian designer who's work is just perfectly interesting and beautiful. She has a clear style to her designs, she uses industrial waste in her production, and is basically making fashion in a way that makes sense for the earth. She did her doctoral research about "the possibilities of implementing upcycling within the fashion industry and mass production" and so, is a total rock star. Now she's using what she learner in her own company and design work, and spreading the word to other designers and companies. This is what we need in the world instead of all the scary, cheap, poisonous fast fashion brands! Be sure to check out reetaus.com for some style and inspirational reading. Hurray!!
