The Shadow Seamstress

Last autumn was also the time to try some new things! Lassi's cousin Nick, who happens to be a cinematographer, had been wanting to shoot in Lassi's building ever since he first visited it last year, and he actually ended up turning that idea into a short movie! The movie was to be shot in Finnish, so I was extremely relieved that the character I was cast to play was actually mute :-D

It was nevertheless extremely exciting to act in a movie (first time ever! :-) ), and we had a wonderful team to work with. Besides Nick and Lassi (who took care of producing and assisting Nick with a wide variety of tasks) most of the people involved were close friends, such as Saara Salmi and Marco Melander from Atelieri O. Haapala and people from Fintage RY. Stay tuned, since the movie is now finished and that means we'll hopefully be able to show it somewhere in the near future! :-)

as Venetia van Kraemers
picture by Marianne Niemelä

Fleamarket Finds, Vol.7

So while I'm stuck at the airport in Paris, I may as well write a couple of belated posts more!

Last time I posted about the open air market in the Basque Country, and this time I'll post about probably the very best open air market in Finland (at least that I have been to). It's in a small town far north, in an area of Finland where they mostly speak the kind of Swedish that was spoken in the area hundrends of years ago, when Finland was under the Swedish rule. 

The trip there is long, so it was really nice when this year we organized a little bit of a roadtrip with a couple of friends (one of which is originally fom the area, and his parents still have a lovely cottage by the cost), and had the last sauna + swim of the year by the sea. The weather was quite terrible, so I decided to wear some confortable and warm clothes. Unluckily enough, I came down with a cold nevertheless :-D

30's sunglasses, 1930's tie, shirt from fleamarket, breeches from
fleamarket (they are part of a Finnish army uniform), puttees from Varusteleka and NOS 1940's shoes

To be honest it's been such a long time since summer that I can't even exactly remember what I bought! But the three main things I remember are a gorgeous jugend bookshelf (that nowadays holds part of my vintage shoe collection), a jugend cushion cover and an old sewing box.

The first and the latter were two items I had really been searching for, specially the sewing bow. I now sew so very often (burlesque + tribal fusion bellydance + vintage) that I had been in urgent need of a sensible way to organize the basic sewing supplies for a long time. The box I found was not the prettiest, nor the in the very best of condition (specially since the wood got quite wet with the rain during the early hours of the market), but it was big (lots of space!) and I got it at a very good price (prices for sewing boxes are usually quite prohibiting). 

[picture to follow when I arrive home!]

The cushion was a simple piece with a jugend rose pattern, but the elder lady who was selling it was so happy I wanted to buy it that she even gave me a discount! Still searching for more of these, one can never have too many cushions! ;-)

[picture to follow when I arrive home!]

I already have a jugend bookshelf that I bought in the begining of the summer, but I had nowhere else to put shoes in my room so I was in dire need of a second one. Later on Lassi did a bit of research, and he found an almost identical one in an old Muurame catalogue, which was quite awesome because most of the vintage pieces of furniture in my room are also from Muurame (warning: if you google the name and come up with pictures of what they do today please do not be scared! they used to do absolutely gorgeous pieces in the 1910's-1920's decades)

[picture to follow when I arrive home!]

New visit cards!

I just got my new visit cards today! The design is still the same since I really like it, but you can now find the address to my website on the back. And they came right on time for the crazy "minitour" in May: London Burlesque Festival on the 15.5, the Sinsational Spring Awakening on the 24.5 and the Boylesque Festival Vienna on the 28.5! <3

Cards designed by Lassi Patokorpi
Absynth fairy picture by Jirina Alanko

Gibson Girl outfit

So here goes one of the edwardian outfits I wore to Vapriikki Vintage a couple of weeks ago! I really enjoyed wearing this, since most of the items are original edwardian pieces and they are all full of lovely details.

The full outfit consisted of: a gorgeous white muslin shirt, a black woolen skirt, brass pendant, brown boots and cotton socks. 

picture by Lassi

The muslin shirt is one of the last original edwardian pieces I've bought, and it's already one of my favourites! Just look at that collar, it goes almost half-way up the neck, and then folds down gracefully in two lapels. The whole shirt has some delicate and simple decoration, and the muslin is an absolutely lovely material to wear, so light and soft! I got this delicious piece from the Swedish shop Tidens Melody (from which I also got a few other pieces you may be seeing in the near future! ;-) ).

The skirt is an Etsy find, and it's in absolutely perfect condition (I guess this piece is late 1910's). Made in black wool, it has some gorgeous art deco details on the waist. I've had this skirt for over a year now, but the waist was a bit too big so I haven't been able to wear it comfortably until I decided to make it smaller (no fabric cut in the process!). 

The pendant is also an Etsy find, and even though it's not an original piece it has been hand crafted by a very talented Polish jewelsmith after an original piece. The pendant came without any chains attached to it, so I used my imagination when it came to deciding how to "finish" the piece in order to be able to wear it. 

a better look at the shirt's and skirt's details
pictures by Lassi

The boots are one of my treasures. They were originally edwardian ice-skating boots, but when Lassi found them in Ebay someone had already removed the blades, so after the cobbler placed new half-soles on them they got a new life as winter boots. And let me tell you, they are the best andmost comfortable pair of winter boots I've ever had! They hug the ankle like a glove, and even though you can't really wear very thick socks with them my feet have never felt cold in them. The colour is also quite rare (most surviving boots from this period tend to be black), since it's a gorgeous and rich shade of reddish brown (foxy!).

And last but not least, the cotton Atlas socks I had bought the previous day at the Vintage Market in action!

right: you can even see a couple of "cuts" from their
previous life as skating boots!

Vapriikki Vintage finds: day 2

Second day at Vapriikki Vintage! Unfortunately enough (or fortunately enough for my wallet) I didn't have much time to look around the vintage market this day. Both Fintage's fashion show and the Helsinki Traditional Jazz Dance group's performance and lesson were happening on this day, which meant I spent part of the morning rehearsing and doing both my and Malin Grahn's hair and makeup, and part of the afternoon getting ready for the fashion show. Nevertheless, I did find a couple of gorgeous pieces of textile by Tampella!

above: damask weaving
bellow: Tampella damask tablecloth
pictures from www.tampere.fi

Oy Tampella Ab was a factory that made of Tampere one of the most important industrial cities in Finland, and operated from 1856 until 1991. Although it produced a huge amount of different products (mostly industrial machinery), I'm going to write a bit about one of their most famous textiles: the damask. 

The damask is a textile of a single colour, with reversible patterns that are created by weaving threads in different directions. 

Tampella started to produce damask textiles in the 1890 decade, and designers created the different models, which were tipycally produced during a few decades. Famous designers such as Siri Brunou, Louis Sparre and Aili Rancken created some of these pieces. 

my gorgeous finds! <3

The first piece I spotted on the first day already, but since I didn't have cash with me in that moment the lovely seller said she would keep it for me. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it, how could I not! It was designed in the year 1907 and the motif is indeed as jugend and arts & crafts as it gets! This piece was meant as a guest towel, and the gorgeous jugend motif covers both ends. I actually even noticed, while googling for this article, that a piece just like this one is actually kept in the Tampere Museum :-)

designer: Aili Rancken
model: Fantasia
number: 253
produced: 1907-1974

The second piece cought my eye on Sunday morning when I went to pay for and pick up the previous piece, partly due to its gorgeous shade of blue. This also makes me think that this tablecloth was probably produced in the 1950 decade, since until then white damasks were the most common, but the motif started to be produced already in the year 1930 and its peacocks are a clear reminiscent of the edwardian orientalism. 

model: Riikinkukko (peacock)
number: 633
produced: 1930-1953?

Vapriikki Vintage finds: day 1

First day at my favourite winter vintage event! And as always, plenty of things to drool at :-)

I'm trying to be a good girl this year and not buy too much, but I found some things that have been on my "wishlist" for a while now, so those were a must! Plus we are usually also taking care of Fintage's table at the vintage market during the event, and on Sunday organizing a fashion show with Fintage's members and vintage clothes, so luckily I didn't get to spend too much time shopping. 

One of the things I'm going nutts about lately is vintage men's clothing! I think it looks extremely elegant and sharp, but finding a good fit for someone as tall and curvy as me is really difficult! I did find a bunch of small items though: a 1910's white tie (which I had been missing for for my "The Chap" burlesque act, thank you Lassi for finding it!), a detachable front and absolutely GORGEOUS detachable collar (both around 1930's) and a couple of ties (probably late 1920's).

soooo in love with the collar! <3

The next thing I bought had been in my "wishlist" forever! I present you my "new" edwardian granny boots, black with the upper part in black suede! I have actually had a bit of an uncommon luck with these kind of boots, since the ones I've been finding so far have been white and brown, which are usually much harder to find. The black ones have thus been missing from my collection, but not anymore!

absolutely gorgeous label in the inside,
made in Rauma (Finland)!

And when I thought that I was already done for the day, I still got a couple of nice items! The tap pants (1920's underwear) I got from another member of Fintage and happened to be a perfect fit! And the cotton stocking from Atlas were something I've been needing for a while, and will be wearing for today's fashion show with my edwardian outfit. These socks have been produced in the same way since the 1930's, but the model actually works pretty nicely as edwardian underwear as well. 

tap pants and atlas stockings (with matching
thread for fixing included)

I did have a couple of nice outfits this day, but the always amazing Atelieri O. Haapala from Helsinki were taking cabinet pictures in Vapriikki this day, so I'll wait to show you until I get the nicer pictures!

Day 2 next...

Vapriikki Vintage 2014 approaching!

So to keep a little bit of balance, today's post will be about my third great passion: vintage. I'm in love with vintage for many reasons, which can probably be explained more in depth at some future post, but basically let's just say things were made BETTER in the past. Better quality materials were used, people really put some thought into the actual design of the pieces, and things were made to last.

Whereas there are nice things to be found about all decades, I'm specially crazy about the 1910's, 1920's and 1930's, and the reason is probably that those are the periods in which Art Noveau and Art Deco reached their heights aesthetically, at least in my humble opinion. It's indeed difficult to explain what it is about those two that is so appealing to the eye, but they just have that special something that I love :-)

That's is why I'm looking forward to this year's Vapriikki Vintage happening even more than usual! Every year has a theme, and this year's is Art Noveau and Jugend. This event is a delight for any vintage lover! It's organized by Fintage and the Vapriikki museum in Tampere, and takes place in the museum itself. The event is full of fun things to do, which can be enjoyed for the price of the regular ticket to the museum (entrace to the vintage market is free). The program includes, among others, the studio of the super talented photographers Atelieri O. Haapala, guided visits to sections of the museum, lectures, workshops, dance, music, and a vintage clothing fashion show (where you'll be able to find yours trully showing two of her favourite vintage pieces, but more on that later!). If this made you even a little bit curious, go ahead and have a look at the program! You can find it both at Fintage's website and the event's facebook page.