RIDICULE AROUND RITA

Some time ago there were headlines over here, and smaller notices elsewhere, about Ivana Trump suing the Finnish fashion company IVANAhelsinki claiming the later was taking advantage of her name. This was when the IVANAhelsinki collection was presented at the New York fashion week. While many considered it a PR trick from Trump's side, it was considered plain idiocity over here : IVANAhelsinki was founded in the late nineties by Paola Ivana (yes, that's her name too) while Trump registered her name as a trade mark as late as 2002... And back then few even knew about any of the Trumps over here - and even fewer cared. I noticed that some of the non Finnish articles mentioning the case, while over all neutral, were wondering why someone would want to use the Ivana name anyhow as the thing is a bit "old and used already". (To be pointed out is that there seems to be several Ivana-named brands in NY already, like an Ivana Vodka for example). Which shows of bad research of those authors - apart from the facts already mentioned the thing with IVANA helsinki is that the brand of course has nothing to do with any other Ivana than the one designing the clothes, and does not really have any need nor desire to be associated with anything else than itself.

Well, I don't know how the case has continued as the news front has been silent so far. But yesterday a new case made the headlines (something I noticed already has been appearing in posts by many fellow Finnish blogs during the past day too); Adidas has demanded Minna Parikka to withdraw her Rita shoe from the market, claiming the three stripes are copied from the classic Adidas sneaker.

Minna has explained that the three stripes are the ribbons of the bows in front of the shoe, but she still chose to withdraw the boot as "a small entrepreneur stands little chance against a huge corporation". It seems her matching Mistress gloves are also no longer available.

Of course companies and trade marks should watch out for themselves and their copyrighted products and look (for example the Marimekko vs. D&G case was rather obvious), but not by being obsessive - or cocky. I think comparing a high heeled boot from a chick designer to a classic leisure sneaker is, well, ridiculous.

For me those striped boots resembles a covered version of some of her pumps with three or more straps. But never in a lifetime would I have thought of Adidas! What do you think?

TO BE OR NOT TO BE, OR TO HASBEENS?

First I'm going to tell you something and then I'm going to ask you something.

The telling: I'm completely fucked in the head.

To start with I blame the internet, my paypal account and then a bunch of other facts, phenomenons and whatever. The thing is, I just can't stop wanting stuff, not only believing but knowing I need it/that/those/whatever, trying to make my wardrobe complete; perfect for any occasion. You know, one part of life such as it is seen upon nowadays is a constant search for the perfect something - the perfect job, the perfect home, the perfect partner, the perfect hand bag, perfect black skirt, foundation, mascara, every day shoes, life you name it... The longing for all things perfect and then even a little more prefect is something of a challenge we create upon ourselves but also something being fed to us all the time in magazines and commercials.

Well, enough about blaming society for my materialistic cravings as the thing here was about me and my f:d up head, plus, for the moment I actually have the perfect home-in-the-making and a pretty perfect partner (plus perfect lashes done so skip the mascara and I've given up on the black skirt). But, as it seems, not the perfect easy going shoes for summer. As that is clearly something everyone needs. And one fine day when I should have been out in the park enjoying the sunshine but instead sat down by the wonderful never-ending world of the internet I found the perfect ones:

Swedish Hasbeens candy coloured sky high sandals. That at least in my book look comfy enough for the so called every day wear.

But but but. I have a whole box of -yet-to -unpack-and-nowhere-to-put-after-that-shoes (not sandals though! Very few such!) at home. (Not to mention clothes, still a couple of suitcases in waiting. And strangely though, I think I have less and less to wear day by day. How can it be?)

Well anyway, I may be fucked in the head but the sandals are still pretty sweet aren't they? And one pair more wouldn't hurt. Plus my comfy everyday summer shoes so far have been a pair of red H&M peeptoes, well serving their 19 euros since 2006, now falling apart. I mean, these even come in mint green! (Even though I do think one pair of mint green shoes are enough, believe it or not. Might go for pink or natural-shaded ones instead).


Hmmm.

So, now over to the questions: since the apparently much hyped Swedish Hasbeens still are a little bit on the more expensive side I'd really like to know if they are comfortable. That would pretty much be the whoel point of purchasing. I sort of think that if you pay more than 150 euros for a pair of shoes comfot better come with the price - that works for Minna Parikka shoes at least, but you can never be sure.(And no, lower heels are out of the question. I don't think the sky high ones look that high anyway.)
So any experiences on the sky high ones?
Or hasbeens in general?

And does anybody know about the sizing? I read they are rather small but their size chart seems to be pretty regular, almost bit on the bigger side. I've been measuring my feet over and over here at work, even standing on a ruler and the result indicates I should go for a 36 but that would be one size smaller than my normal one and I can't really trust that.

Well over and out, let's see if I end up with a pair or if I find something else more necessary and interesting before I click Buy.

VARFÖR? DÄRFÖR!

My life is full of things right now - my calendar is booked until December (! or Februay 2011 to be precise); we have arenovation coming up and otherwise there are a lot of big things going on in my mind. Sometimes it helps to erase all of those and concentrate on something totally different and less important. Like a pair of shoes (well at least it's a great excuse isn't it). So here's a wellfare country problem for you:

I spotted a pair of mint green Vagabond pumps online and directly dismissed the thought of buying them as I already have plenty more than enough of shoes, but then it struck me - is this it with the shoes? Does this mean I just won't get any new shoes, like, eh, ever? Then I happily reminded myself that my old rule still apply; no new shoes unless in a new colour. (It's not an absolute rule since one is entitled to have more than one pair of black and red shoes, at least). Plus surely every woman needs a pair of heels matching her refrigerator? Well, at least if it is mint green!


Now the only problem is stupid Vagabond Finland didn't have the guts to ever take in the shoes in this colour to the stores. And it seems they are sold out everywhere in my size online. So now a lot of happy size 37 bitches all over Europe are running around with my shoes on them (how dare they!).

This bugs me out like hell. I like the shoes, tried them on in black; they're comfy and has the same shape as a pair of 40's pumps I got from my grandmother but were too small, but they are not the most fantastic shoes in the world. Although right now it still feels like a mission for me to get them. Why? Well - just because. Because I can't have them, which made me reflect over the fact how easy it is to get things these days; I think we are quite accustomed to getting what we want as consumers (unless you loose a bidding on ebay of course :) Of course I do not always get what I want, not even when it comes to those things that money can buy as I am not made of it and do set some boundaries on how I use the money I have (yes I know it's hard to believe when reading this blog...). But a lot of things are so easy to get nowadays, nothing but that magical little click away and off to the post office we go to pick it up or pop by the store. And now I can't have these! Damn.

I will most likely get over this great loss rather soon, but until then, if anyone spots a pair of these green ash palma pumps in size 37 let me now ok? (Or I might just buy them for that German shop that carry them in size 38 and use them with socks or have the clobber somehow shrink them a bit. I can be quite persistent :)

I 'M NOT SAYING I WILL GET IT BUT I 'M NOT SAYING I WON'T (OR AM I?)

I am not one of those to make New Year’s resolutions. No promises, ever.

I have however tried it with improvements - the first time being last year. I was going to improve my manners of taking care of my paper work – organize my accounting, billing, bank and business papers weekly instead of once per the quarter– but that went horribly wrong. I actually became less organized than before. So this year I should probably give up on even trying in order not to fail again and feel all bad afterwards. (I didn't after last year's fail, which is probably a bit alarming. Or annoying. But I’m just born with this 'No Worries No Hurries' attitude towards these things and so far so good.)

Giving up in advance is however not the preppy spirit one is thought of to have around this time of year, ey? So if I would try it with a small restriction instead of an improvement this time? To stop buying things online all the time and instead save up for that mintgreen Smeg I have been babbling about for a very long time already, which I actually am going to get us this summer and put into a bigger kitchen! (Yey!)

That of course means that I will not for example buy this to-die-for jacket from Trashy Diva. No way.

A jacket that could only be used a few months per year due to the climate around here and with me already having enough of practically everything it is of course out of the question. Not even though it also comes in leopard print (oh! oh! I’m having a real hard time here now)!

So I have no intention of getting myself either one whatsoever, ahum, I am merely presenting it to you in case anyone is up for some spring jacket inspiration?

(Oh ♥)

IT'S GETTING DARKER BUT AT LEAST IT'S NOT THAT COLD.

Well hello global warming! I'm wearng my September jacket in November.

I've stumbled across warm weather in blogs lately as it seems to be especially warm for the season everywhere. But where bloggers in the norther part of the US blog about sunshine in something that almost resembles a very late indian summer and middle European girls enjoy nice warm autumn days at + 15 C, a mild November over here means +7 and rain. Sunshine or not, it gets dark a bit over 15 o'clock here already. And it will get darker for one moth still. Yey.

Everything I'm wearing is vintage except for the shoes (which btw are much comfier by now :)

TO SHOP OR NOT TO SHOP

...is actually not the question. At least for me, since I'm really not that much of a "shopper". But it is for some.



So this is K. One of my very best friends and also my work-partner. But besides the work we do together she also wors as an Art Director and she works a lot. So sometimes when she feels really tired and stressed (that's quite often)she does some shopping. You know, some people eat chocolate, others get drunk, some shop. And also shopping whenever the sales are happening, just for the fun of it. Nothing wrong with that really from one point of view (which would be the capitalist view of our well-being society I'd guess. And we're all part of that, one way or another). But if you aready have a lot of things (how many of you reading this will actually need a pair of new shoes for real within say, the next two years?) or if you earn ok money but never really manage to save any of it it might be good to look at things from another pint of view.

K has a lot of really nice clothing and accessoary, she has very cute but still classy style and likes to get stuff from new designers or quality brands. (I wrote this because I've labelled my blog "fashion blog". Otherwise I coul've skipped this sentence :) But on our trip in Berlin, staying with our friend in a house where nobody really works (works in a matter of going somewhere to work and then get paid at the end of the month) but paint and do music and thus live on a quite tight budget K started talking about cutting down the shopping.

Inspite of the small budget our friend (who moved to Berlin from Helsinki last spring) still got by quite well. She didnt have a credit card but had a certain amount of cash to spend every month. She just didn't do any shopping - the only exeption being a pair of blue vintage suede boots for €10 in July (fashionblogger writing here again) - but otherwie lived quite like before. Now of course you can't compare Berlin to Helsinki in a matter of the costs for taking a cab or eating out (or at home either, not to mention the other costs for living) since Helsinki is so darn expensive, but I guess both K and I could get by on a lot smaller budget than now. It's hard to let go of a certain lifestyle one is used to, and I have no need for a drastic change, even though I could cook at home a bit more often than I do for example (half of the things I buy I'm forced to throw away since they go bad before I even try to make something out of them). And I could take the nightbus home with the common people every now and then after a night out on town instead of always grabing that costy cab. (please note my slight tone of irony here. I'm rather common too).

Then there is always the topic of what should you really do with all your money - save it for a bigger flat, travels, the future children, give everything extra away or whatever? I'm not going to go in on that (is anyone still reading at this point btw?) . I'll just stick to the more shallow stuff here.

Well anyway (you can continue reading here if you skipped some text above now), K made a decision not to do any shopping anymore. She didn't really say how long this project would last, I guess it will evolve into just buying less in the future, since I'm still quite sure she hasn't bought her last pairs of shoes yet :)
So, wish her luck!

Because this blog is mainly about pretty things and since it's nice with pics instead of just text I'll post a picture my magnificent mobilephone captured of some cute tings K got while it was still ok for her to consume - a lovely leather purse and leather cuff. Everything always looks like candy on her:


.............
...and a little update. K bought curtains and was a bit worried about that but they don't count since she needed them, they therefore had a purpouse and weren't just for herself but for her house and Mr too.

(If anyone wondres why this is labelled under 'fucked up things' it's just because this whole topic is quite fucked up really, even though it's quite general; there are even blogs about people changing their lifestyles towards non-consuming and so on. It's just fucked up since we make such a big thing about it, in some parts of the world they would have no clue what the hell I'm talking about.)

GODDAMIT!

Top & scarf - Carlings, Shoes - H&M
Trousers - Genlemen take Polaroids (coloured by me)


Today I woke up to maybe the best day of summer so far.

Which sucked since I had to work today.

Yes, I'm still on vacation, but I had promised to do a shift at "the-cothing-store-I'm-employed-at-but-never-work-in-but-still-have-my-discount-at"; the first shift since one in February, the time before that being someting like November 2007. (I'm not sure if the discount is worth it, goddamit I don't even shop there that much anymore!)

Well, I'm there and one hour before the other guy who will finish the day is due to come to work he calls me in the shop and tells me he's ill and won't show up. Seriously, fuck. I really wanted to go home and cathc some beauty sleep bvefore hitting the town big tie tonight. Thank god some of the sweet guys from another of these stores (there are three within five minutes from each other) came and stayed for a while so I could have lunch, and another guy other came to close so I didn't have to stay the whole evening. You gotta love those guys.

About the store... I kind of hate it in a way. They have their own designers and own brands. As an employee you can send in suggestions for designs, and if it is put up fpr production you get 1000 euros. Not much if you've actually designed something, but if you're a regular guy behind the counter and have a cool idea for say, a t-shirt, then one grand and your shirt in the store is quite nice. So, two years ago I drew up a whole collection of mine and my friend's (who was also my storemanager's at the time) ideas. Very what-we-know-they-would-sell and some of what we wanted for ourselves. The responce was that it was "really good, but a bit too much for them to dig in to".

Ummmm, what?

Someone gets a grand for saying "you should make a yellow tee with red stripes" and we had tons of ideas but it's too much for them to look at? Ok, fine, if they wouldn't have wanted those designs at all. But during the year after some similar things showed up in the store, like small details resembling, or the same model but different patterns or colours... Hmm, ok, might be a coincidence and I'm a trend oracle in that case, but this shirt really pised me off:

My drawing of a men's shirt in August 2006:


Sneaky pics of shirt in production fall/winter 2007:


Rrrrip-off!
Sure, I had ska-inspired checks and this shirt dogtooth, but they had never had shirt lined with checks before! And I had put the checked lining under the collar (and on it in another version), they had it inside. But the lining of the buttons and the cuffs are just like I drew them, goddamit, it's the same f***ing shirt!

Sure, fashion industry is a lot about copying or riping off, you know, what you see on the catwalks of the big fashion houses you'll see similar versions of in Zara etc. the season after. That's ok, it's the way it goes and it's a bit different when huge corporations do it as part of a system than when a company rips it's employers of.

So, I'm going to keep on being employed and shop cheaper and then maybe honour the shop with my presence behind the counter a couple of times a year.

I'll be there tomorrow too, all hungover and miserable, matching my eyes with the colour of my top, playing rautalanka-music. So don't come there. Well, unless you'll bring me an ice cream or something.
(hear hear, employee of the year speaking! :)