Size Guide
Beginning of November is a significant turning point of the year in the Nordic hemisphere of the world. The summer is gone and the last yellow leaves are loosening their grip of the thin branches, the night temperature falls under zero which means that the plants have prepared themselves for winter.
Inspired by the different traditions that are related to the turning point we are at, and feeling the urge to read about the ancestors of our time, I wanted to introduce four artists of the 20th century to you. They are in one way or another influenced to our work as the designers for TAUKO.
Coco Chanel
Getting to know the work of Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel (19 August 1883 – 10 January 1971), is like a short introduction to the history of fashion of the 20th century.
Chanel introduced a comfortable and practical womenswear, voluminous high rise trousers and jersey knit shirts, to the fashion world. It was revolutionary for her time and started a new era for women's fashion.
TAUKO’s upcoming Summer & Spring 2019 collection has been inspired by the 1920’s voluminous trousers and relaxed silhouette. During the design process, the effect that Chanel had for the women's fashion became ever more evident for us.
Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf (25 January1882 – 28 March 1941) is famous for her statement of the importance of creative space. "A room of One's own" is also an essay about the space for a women that is not defined by her role as mother or as a wife, but as an individual.
"Vain trifles as they seem, clothes have, they say, more important offices than to merely keep us warm. They change our view of the world and the world's view of us.”
Woolf's quote from the novel, Orlando, tells a lot about how she adopted the modern way of thinking where everything, also our clothes (or how the society dresses us), shape our way of being.
Reading Orlando is very interesting for those, who are keen on the philosophy and sociology of clothes. Woolf vivid language captures and reveals magnifically something essential about our everyday routines of dressing up and on choosing how we dress.
I will dive deeper into this topic later this Autumn and Winter season offering the ones, who are interested in the topic, readings from Woolf and other modernist writers.
Frida Kahlo
The visuality that was inspired by the Mexican popular culture and folklore by Frida Kahlo (6 July 1907 – 13 July 1954) captured my interest when I was in my early 20’s. The muralist paintings offered unfiltered, very magical and surreal way of looking at the world. Very different from the European painters of mid 20th century.
The female body, Kahlo herself, is the biggest and most prominent theme of the paintings. Her interest in medical illustration and accident in her youth that caused her lifelong health problems, resulted in very detailed and vivid images of female body. Combined with imaginary and surreal elements, these images revolutionize the idea of female body.
The body image, in different forms of art, are always very interesting for fashion design. Fashion has a great impact on how we think of our body and Kahlo’s strong interpretations have given us a lot of new viewpoints.
Tove Jansson
Referring to carrots or potatoes, when talking about the meaning of life, travelling and becoming a hermit, are themes to connect with when talking about Tove Jansson (9 August 1914 – 27 June 2001). She is a master in giving words to the everyday observations that hide bigger meaning and lots of wisdom in them.
To get into this extraordinary language of everyday observations, read the “Sommarboken” by Jansson. There is no better way to spend a dark November night, than reading about the beautiful details in the summery archipelago. These sceneries and the world where Jansson is getting her inspiration is very familiar to us as Finnish designers and her way of describing it feels very natural to us.
Text Mila Moisio