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.

Happy Chinese New Year with Gucci SS 2013.

 

Chinese New Year has been celebrated during this weekend in Helsinki. Yesterday we had a nice little festival in the center of Helsinki with beautiful red lanterns, fireworks and gentle snowfall. In the Chinese calendar, the year ahead will be a year of snake.

We are celebrating Chinese New Year here at Flash For Zonzon with the most snaky look from spring summer 2013 catwalks. This Gucci-look has a wonderful snakeskin pattern in the top. Very elegant and not at all attacking.

Catwalk. Junya Watanabe Men, Fall/Winter 2013.

 

When I first saw Junya Watanabe fall/winter 2013 collection for men in The Sartorialist site I was totally thrilled. I absolutely loved the whole thing, colors, pattern mix, patchwork, texture, shape. A lot of similar colors I can find from my own closet. Although this is men collection I'd like to wear many pieces myself.

 

Most fun in the show was that the models had a big amount of personality. Check Junya Watanabe fall collection 2013 in Style.com if you like.

This kind of style could be a good DIY-project too. You can make your own patchwork to some grey tone vintage coat. Just get some quality mens suit fabric patches and start sewing. Same treatment could be done to your old pair of jeans too. Like that you can have a home made Junya Watanabe -style.

 

The striped T-shirts you can get from Finnish design brand Marimekko. They have this Tasaraita -classic pattern that would do the stripe job here just fine. Tasaraita stripes are designed by Annika Rimala in 1968 and ever since Marimekko has had this evergreen pattern in production. The stripes are 1 cm wide and the stripes are knitted. You can find in Marimekko webshop right now: 

T-shirt with long sleeves, Pitkähiha, that fits for men too and Mari Classic for women.

To some extent the whole thing reminds me of Charley Chaplin's wold. I have just recently seen the very first Chaplin films from 1916 in Cinema Orion, Helsinki. (Eerikinkatu 15) Orion is a cinema of Finland's National Audiovisual Archive. It's possible to see all the masterpieces of film history there. Right now they have a series of Chaplin's work going on Sundays 16.00. It's a pleasure to dive into the past world and styles through the film history. 

To be true I have got few style ideas from the Chaplin's movies in my head, but I leave them to some future post. So stay tuned!

On the Street. Grey Suit With Color Spices, Museum of Sports, Helsinki.

 

Today I attended an event where the Sports Book of the Year 2012 in Finland was nominated. The winner was a beautiful book "The Birth of Sports" (Urheilulajien synty) by Juha Kanerva and Vesa Tikander. The book is a splendid introduction to all the sports we have come up with. And the layout needs an extra reference too.

To my joy one of the journalists had spiced his grey suit with very nice color details. Dark blue velvet vest, purple tie and pocket square, shirt with tiny purple flowers, shoes reddish patent leather with hole patterns. So I had to thank him not only about the great book but also for a nice style.

By the way. When I draw these On the Street -characters I'm not trying to do exact look alike of the person I have spotted. The aim is more to get the feeling of the essential parts of the style.

Beauty Spots of Clown Eyes.

 

When I posted a circus-post at the end of last year came some other circus-related topics to my mind that I'd like to share with you.

Once I had a neighbor Karolina, a female circus acrobat. She always had little drawn spots under her eyes as a make up. Once came to speech, that besides acrobat and circus teacher for kids she also worked as a Clown Doctor at hospitals. You know the Clown Doctors that bring the healing power of humor and laughter to hospitalized children.

My neighbor kind of carried the comedy and being clown in her everyday life in her minimal clown makeup-spots under her eyes. She told that the idea behind those spots is to direct viewer's attention to eyes.

Not a bad idea. The spots under the eyes were very cute actually. Maybe we could try that makeup-trick too to get some extra positive attention. What do you think?

On the Street. Brave White Boots, Töölö, Helsinki.

 

Be careful! It's very slippery out there!

On the Street. 50s Style Eyeglasses, Adams, Helsinki.

 

 For a change it was very refreshing to see someone dress up in light colors in wintertime. I also liked the contrast between the pale look and 50s feeling glasses. Girlish and strong at the same time.

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.

On the Street. Fur Sleeves, Aleksanterinkatu, Helsinki.

 

During the first week of the new year there is always lot of Russian tourists in Helsinki. It affects the street scene immediately in the way that there is a lot of furs. Fur hood edge, fur hats, fur coats, fur vests. Normally fur is not so common around here. After 90s strict criticism against fur farming fur has almost disappeared from the street scene. For example a friend of mine has inherited a nice looking fur coat, but she don't want to wear it because of the bad conscience and feeling sorry for the animals. 

Anyway, this look was so elegant I had to paint it. With the Monocler Gamme Rouge -boots this fur sleeved coat would make quite a different sound.

On the Street. Poodle-look, Liisankatu, Helsinki.

 

Hello there! Let's begin the new year blogging with the basics. In this case it means Street style -post. Here we have a nice outfit from Helsinki that reminds a bit like poodle.