On the YukiCon 5.0. Bunny Girl Cosplay, Helsinki.

A little while ago I attended YukiCon for the first time. YukiCon is about cosplay, magic, virtual fandom, anime, meetings of like minded mostly young people, that read manga, play video games, make cosplay music videos, draw fan art, eat pocky-sticks, crochet amigurumis and sleep in Pokémon pyjamas. Wow what a happening!

What I most liked, was the absolutely the marvelous variety of cosplay-costumes. Because I'm not a manga reader or video game player type of person, in most cases I didn't have a clue what they were dressed to look like. But that didn't matter.

In the beginning I thought I might sit somewhere with the sketchbook and concentrate in drawing the people. But at the end it felt meddlesome. Instead I drew this bunny girl from memory in her huge brown ears and matching color brick shaped big paws. The Bunny stood alone looking around, apparently trying to find someone familiar. The uncertainty fitted perfectly to the costume. Does anyone know what popular culture character she is actually playing? Enlighten me in comments if you know the role model of this costume.

By the way. When I was, say, 20 years younger, the animal I most related to was a bunny. Or to be precise, a rabbit. A little shy and timorous and fast running. Later it has changed. Now I feel more like crow. And I’m happy about it. Have you ever thought what you would be if you would be an animal?

On the Street. Trending Pleated Skirt, Kaapelitehdas, Helsinki

Helsinki Design Week filled with events was the thing last week. Foolish for me to give this tip only afterwards, but anyway, you can check on Helsinki Design Week -website what you missed and start planning a trip to Helsinki next year same time. To be honest the site is useful all time of the year giving weekly tips what to do in Helsinki in design-thinking point of view.

The Design Week starts always with Design Market in Kaapelitehdas. There design-brands of all sorts sell their products and samples. The event gathers masses of people and it is easy to spot the trends that is pop in Helsinki right now.

There is two things that fly high in the Helsinki trend sky at the moment. One is pleated skirt. The hemline of pleated skirts is 20 cm below the knee.

The other trend is black sneakers with white sole. These shoes are combined with every outfit. No matter if it is sporty, casual style or festive dress, these shoes go with it. Black seems to be most popular but there is other colors also. Anyway, high heels has not been seen on women interested in design.

The once said rule is therefore strengthen. In everyday dress code the Finnish women value the ability to walk with ease, over classic high heels feminine look.

I picked up this lady as a sample because of her brilliant color combo. Also her skirt was apparently wool blend and made a marvelous pair to fluffy yellow mohair scarf.

On the Street. Brim Hat Look, Kamppi, Helsinki.

Here we go in an always pleasant looking monochromatic range of colors. Special attention to proportions in this case. Wide brim hat and loosely undulating pepper tweed coat. As opposed to thin legs sticking out from under tight miniskirt. Big white sneaker shoes is a fun endpoint that root this young lady steadily to the ground.

On the Street. Street Credible HAI Rubber Boots, Vallila, Helsinki.

I spotted this lady in Vallila Emmaus Thrift Store. It was a refreshing change to see some colour, when the majority of the people in Helsinki dress in dark shades. In her feet she had the very street credible bright yellow Hai rubber boots.

It’s nice that in these days of globalization, when almost same products can be found in every big city around the world, there is still some islands of national style icons. Finland one such iconic piece of clothing is HAI rubber boots (HAI-saappaat) made by Nokian Footwear. Designed in 1967 by architect Esko Lahesmaa the model has stayed true to the original design ever since.

Lahesmaa was challenged to design a rubber boot that would be perfect for boating. As a sailor himself he knew the properties that a rubber boot should have in sailing circumstances. Quick-drying polyester lining, firm grip of the outsole (ideal for yachting), light-coloured rubber outsole leaves no traces to the deck of a boat. Low and wide stem makes it easy to move around the boat and – if knocked overboard – allow easily get rid of the boots.

The name of the boot came after a certain boat model called Hai, which Lahesmaa had sailed a lot of his youth. Hai means Shark in english.

If you want to try out Instagram photos for tag #haisaappaat you will notice the huge love that Finns feel about HAI rubber boots.

Now I’d like to know if you have some similar style icon in your country. Like HAI rubber boots are in Finland. Time after time super popular item and not necessarily very well known abroad. Share your ideas on comment box below.

Links and sources:
Nokian Footwear, since 1898, story
Hai rubber boots
Hai-saapas, Wikipedia
Hai (keelboat),Wikipedia

On the Street. Red Shoes Makes the Difference, Postikatu, Helsinki.

Total black outfits are common in Helsinki. Anyway you can stand out from the crowd with lovely silhouette and by adding bright red spot to your look. I find this silhouette irresistible. I love the coats that are tied with belt made of same fabric as the coat. And the bright red ankle boots is the item that turns heads here.

Finnhits. Minna Parikka Shoes.

I'm presenting in my series Finnhits Finnish clothing brands that I truly like.
Minna Parikka with her delightful, playful, stylish shoe design deserves my true admiration by all means.

There is certainly many wonderful Minna Parikka shoes that would be fun to draw. She has done many shoes with ears, cat ears and bunny ears. Now that we are living Easter, I thought bunny ears would fit fine to this season.  I'm sure that I'm going to come back to her shoes later on some time.

You can get Minna Parikka shoes straight from her webshop. It's worth checking just to see all the pretty shoes with a lot of personality.

On the Street. Orange Swims Galoshes, Kamppi, Helsinki.

The days have been dark without sunshine. Kind of wet too, because temperatures are near zero and snow melts wet porridge. That causes big puddles on the streets to jump over and it's easy to get wet feet if you don't have a proper accessory.

Few days ago I came across to the vision above on the bus stop. I had never seen such colorful galoshes before. Orange galoshes combined with grey, black and bright yellow really opened my eyes. Farewell the old-school black rubber galoshes, it seems. I spotted a name Swims from the back of the heel.

After that first sight I have seen also blue variation of the rubber galoshes. That time though I first thought the person has forgotten to undress the blue plastic shoe covers while leaving some housing introduction. Oops.

The Story of Blue Suede Shoes.

 

After having posted about the Boots Made for Walking in November, I came to think about other shoe related songs. And this came to my mind, Blue Suede Shoes. Immediately I started wonder what kind of shoes they are exactly. Our dearest Internet gave me the answer and led me to a nice story about the origins of this song.

The Daily Apple -blog summarized so fine the story behind the famous song, that I am borrowing the lines from there.

I thought that Elvis is the man behind this song, but no, Carl Perkins wrote it.

• We all know Elvis Presley performed the song, but Carl Perkins is the guy who wrote it. He got the idea from Johnny Cash.
• Cash told Perkins about an Air Force sergeant he used to know was rather particular about his appearance. He used to say, jokingly, "Just don't step on my blue suede shoes!" The reason this was a joke was because he'd be wearing his Air Force uniform at the time, with his regulation-issued shoes.
• Cash thought this was a good line for a song, but Perkins didn't have any idea what to do with it. Not long afterward, he was performing at a dance when he heard a boy tell the girl he was dancing with, "Uh-uh! Don't step on my blue suedes!" He thought it was pretty incredible that the boy would care more about his shoes than the girl, and that's what made the song start to click in his head.

If you like to read the long version of the "Shoes"-story you can turn to these sources:
Wikipedia - Blue Suede Shoes
Squidoo, Elvis Songs: Blue Suede Shoes
Songfacts, Blue Suede Shoes by Carl Perkins
Rockabilly Hall of Fame, Blue Suede Shoes: Chronology of a Hit

Curious as I am, I checked both versions on YouTube, Carl Perkins and Elvis. And it can't be helped, Elvis pulls the longer straw. While Carl Perkins feels like an uncle playing guitar and singing along, Elvis is pure energy and rhythm. Great song and if you think it, a funny one too!
You can do anything but lay off of on my blue suede shoes. Yeah!



On weekend I visited a shoe store and to my big surprise there were blue suede shoes for men. Almost same style than the originals. I wouldn't mind having a pair of blue suede shoes myself.
Finally: Is there anybody remembering another shoe related songs? Please let me know if you can think of any.

My Style. These Boots Are Made for Walkin'.

It came one day that I finally met a pair of boots with all the nice details I have dreamed of in my WANTED-post in a while ago. So here in this picture you can see the conclusion to that dreaming. The point when I did the purchase was the moment when I wanted to reward myself of a job well done. In WANTED-posters traditionally is a promise of REWARD also. Well, the boots itself was the reward this time.

I have noticed that I shop shoes in certain situations. Before this time I bought a pair of shoes after having suffered a dental treatment painful enough. I kind of promised myself in a dentists bench mouth full of dental widgets, that if I will be living after the dentist, I'll go to the shoe store nearby. And voila, I had a new pair of shoes. A good girl like that needed some reward for all the misery.

Now we come to interesting question.
Do you have a way to reward yourself in some particular situation? And in what way would that be? Anyone else buying shoes there?
If you like, share your ideas in the comment box.

The original hit These Boots Are Made for Walkin' in 1966 is by Lee Hazlewood and performed by Nancy Sinatra. She obviously had some rat as a companion, so she wanted to walk all over somebody. I have no such trouble, so I might just go walking all over instead. Are you ready boots?

My Style. Wanted Ladies Boots size 39.

Few weeks ago I saw my dream pair of boots in The Style Manifest -bog. I was like Oh Wow, here they are in their beauty with all perforated details.

I left a comment with hopes that there would be female sizes available too. In the comment I'm still hopeful, but I was left with nothing. The sizes begun from 40. My size is 38-39, depending on the shoe. I thought a while to go to foot stretch to get bigger feet. In the end I rejected the idea and decided to do a WANTED-poster instead of it.

If you dear readers have seen these kind of leather boots for ladies in some web shop please give me a tip. I could wear these boots with almost anything. But so far I'm still dreaming.

My style. Puma Slip-ons For the Summer.

I went to town to buy summer canvas shoes for the kids. In the shop I came to second thought when I saw blue-white canvas slip-ons. Those could be nice to me for the summer. Maybe it is the similar coloring than in the Finnish flag that appealed to me. Who knows.

Odd in this case is that in general I'm avoiding all garments with conspicuous labels and trademarks. I'm rather representing myself than some brand or label. But here the PUMA Cat logo jumps in the side anyway. It seems that I'm not (and people in all) so consistent with the behavior as I think I am.

This exception to the rule must be caused because of the cat. First of all I'm definitely more a cat person than a dog person. Furthermore I'm enjoying the drama that happens in my feet. Watch out ladybug! Puma is attacking. 

Catwalk. Selection Of Shoes, fall/winter 2011.

Here you have a selection of shoes for this season. Which would you like to wear? My answer will become in next post.

One day. Collection of shoes, mbar, Helsinki.

On the street. Ruoholahti, Helsinki

He seemed quite ordinary while sitting in the cafeteria behind the table. But when he left I saw his boots singing with his scarf and gloves.