Onar Studios

Grey Sheep

@onarstudios

Location

helsinki / finland

University

aalto university of art, design & architecture Helsinki

Graduation year

2010

Contact

ONAR is a Helsinki-based fashion label introducing a contemporary and minimal take on Nordic craftsmanship.

ONAR, which means “dream” in ancient Greek, is the brainchild of designer Irene Kostas. It sprang to life out of love for quality materials, craftsmanship and wear-forever design.

Kostas is inspired by contrasts and the fusions of unlikely matches. She draws her inspiration from abstract art and the aesthetical heritage of her two native countries, Finland and Greece. In her design, Scandinavian graphic shapes and minimalism meets the mysticism and richness of the Byzantine and the simple, loose silhouettes borrowed from the monastics.

For Kostas, sustainability is a strong value. The ONAR collections utilize already existing materials. Nothing is farmed. The furs and leathers are hand-picked from a variety of Finnish wild game pelts, recycled vintage fur and Italian lamb skins that are byproducts of sheep farming.

The clothes and accessories are handmade by artisans in Finland and Greece, in areas that are specialized for centuries in the traditional craft of leatherwork.

Latest Collection

ONAR Fall Winter 2017 OVERTURE

ONAR Fall-Winter 2017 is strongly connected to music, for this season the Fall-Winter 2017 ONAR collection carries the name Overture. This musical term originally applies to the instrumental introduction of an opera. The collection is designed to express the maximum side of ONAR. Usually the collections are balanced to find a correspondent mix of minimum and maximum. This time the maximum is the center and at the same time represents the core identity of ONAR. The designer, Irene Kostas, built the collection in row with her created art pieces from the last three years. The paintings resemble the color range and mood of the design –it is the abstract form, pure geometry, always colliding with an element of overdose, the element of losing control. The key colors of Overture are emerald green, rosewater, beaujolais, skydiver blue, orange, greener grass, begonia pink and acid yellow. The colors are the key to express the balance and the play between high culture and subcultures –acid meets the sophisticated softness of the high culture color emerald green, in touch with the depth of beaujolais and skydiver blue. Shooting the collection in one of the designer’s favorites spots in Helsinki, where she also happens to play music, underlines ONAR’s roots in music. Overture offers new shapes and lengths in the growing variety of Outerwear pieces. Timeless shapes are combined with a refreshing strong range of colors, displaying the maximum.