Atlantica - 01.09.2007, Page 43

a t l a n t i c a 41
Helsinkia
reputation for design. So entrenched are the Finns
in their design culture that the city established
Design District Helsinki in 2005, comprised of
25 streets downtown and 150 spots on the map,
ranging from galleries and design studios to ultra
hip clothing boutiques and one very cool design
hotel, the Klaus K.
After a few hours parsing through the streets
of the Design District and window shopping on
my best behavior, I couldn’t help but walk into
Miun, a fashion and accessory boutique no big-
ger than an oversized walk-in closet, where a
whimsically orange, knee-length dress seemed to
call out to me—no, really—from behind the glass
storefront. As it turns out, the boutique’s owner,
Ilona Hyötyläinen, 33, is one of the country’s top
young designers; before opening her own studio
in 2002, she worked for Marimekko and a host of
other Finnish designers. The business is competi-
tive, but there seems to be a camaraderie among
Finnish designers that is mutually beneficial. “Of
course the clothing area is competitive but I know
almost every young designer here and usually we
share all of our information,” says Hyötyläinen.
“We try to help each other.”
In a world where form usually supercedes function,
such cannot be said about Finnish design, where
much of the creative inspiration behind it is as
practical as it is art. And for good reason.