IVANAHELSINKI

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Ivana Helsinki – ‘Indian Summer’ SS/12 Collection Paola Ivana Suhonen - is the multi-talented designer behind the independent Fashion/Art brand Ivana Helsinki from Finland; leading the rapidly growing brand of exciting new design talent from the Finnish capital that has been named as ‘World Design Capital’ for 2012. Highlighted by uniquely feminine, Finnish hand knits and original print designs – the Ivana Helsinki women’s label is now regularly seen in within the pages of all the International fashion magazines, as well as gaining celebrity fans in Helena Christensen, Juliette Lewis, Peaches Geldof, Beth Ditto and Maja Ivarsson. Suhonen’s signature style mends Slavic rough melancholy and pure Scandinavian moods with stories from her own experiences in life. The new ‘Indian Summer’ collection is a northern version of Native American prairie winds. Two original prints ‘Dream Catcher’ and ‘Indian Summer’ are flavoured with Scandinavian-Slavic traditions with a Western themed twist. "Oh those hot summer days, summer’s lasting longer than a year. Warm yellow Indian afternoons, bare feet on moist cold rocks, scents of deep green pine forests. Endless freedom, Indian Summer sunsets, golden dusks that never fade to dark. When I was a child I read the stories of Cowboys and Indians. All the adventures I would imagine they had in the deserts I could mimic in the northern woods."

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About the Designer

IVANAHELSINKI's picture

Ivana Helsinki is based in Helsinki, Finland.

"Love stories, Road trips & Dresses/// Northern Oddity, Pure Beauty& Wildwood Vagabonds"
Ivana Helsinki is an independent art, fashion & cinema brand, delicately mending Slavic rough melancholy and pure
Scandinavian moods. The balancing between white arctic summer nights and endless winter sadness. Eerie hovering
isolation and intense starkness. Ivana Helsinki collections are like small ballads with charming, soulful and savvy tones.
“Ivana Helsinki started as my personal art-project; now it’s a way of living. I could easily spend my life as a nomad, raising stories of love and life and going to my road trips – but it is pretty much ok to do cute, straight cotton and woolen dresses for charismatic drummer girls and girl-women with beautiful souls instead. My world is for the ones whom love moonlit fields, pirates, dark forests, crummy motels, champagne states of drunkenness, fragile butterflies, passionate relationships, cowboys and guardian angels. After all, they all are just after a love of their lives, rarely seen peaceful madness; just waiting to see, will he be a rock star, a motor biker, a gnome, a cosmonaut or a sailor,” explains Ms. Suhonen.
Paola Ivana Suhonen is a Helsinki born designer, artist and filmmaker. As the artist behind the fashion pieces, she starts from her dark, naïve mind-landscapes, northern legends and western romantics, creating the prints, graphics and films to supplement her collections. The mix of past and present has infused her style with yester years’ flavourful sophistication along with a shot of contemporary charm.
A brand thirteen years in the making, the family-operated Ivana Helsinki atelier is based in downtown Helsinki where
unique pieces and small-series production are done. All knits are manufactured in Finland and hand knits come from
Lapland. The brand is the only Scandinavian women’s wear brand to be accepted into the official Paris Fashion Week
“IN” Show calendar and has been featured in several alternative projects where fashion, design and modern art have been combined. Also in September 2010 – Ivana Helsinki was the only Scandinavian brand showing in the official IMG MB New York Fashion Week calendar. In addition to her own projects, Ms. Suhonen has worked product development,
print and concept design for several companies including Head Snowboards, HP Sauce, Topshop, Google, Swarovski,
Coca-Cola, Canon, Artek, Amnesty International, Mori Art Center in Tokyo, Finnish traditional porcelain company
Kermansavi and her own jewellery line for Kaipaus. A graduate of the University of Art and Design Helsinki, Ms.
Suhonen currently studies at the prestigious American Film Institute, where she fulfills her great passion of filmmaking.