On the Street. Trumpet Jeans, Lauttasaari, Helsinki.

On these days trumpet jeans are rarely seen. The whole town seems to go in tight jeans. Therefore I was delighted to see this lady on the gasoline station which I pass every morning. She was busy cleaning her blue car with a rag. If she had straightened her back her narrow silhouette would have looked like this. Very stylish in my opinion.

On the Street. Striped Jacket, Kamppi, Helsinki.

Yesterday I sat in the cafe that is located next to maybe the most crowded street corner in Helsinki. I sat there for an hour looking at the people passing by  and still didn't see anything that would be inspiring to draw. Later while heading my way home I ran to bus and saw the silhouette above hundred meters away from me. The box-like striped jacket with grey slim jeans and heels was the thing this time.

Sometimes few seconds can give you more than an hour.

On The Street. Colorful Spring Look, Töölö, Helsinki.

 

My life has been so hectic that I have not had time to draw anything here on the blog this month yet. The busiest time is now over so I looked around me and what did I see? The Spring has apparently come to town. We are seeing more color in the street, yes. I picked up this girl in her own colorful world. And the tune might be Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun".

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. In the Footsteps of Corto Maltese, Haahkatie, Helsinki.

In the footsteps of Corto Maltese I mean the combination of pea coat and sailor hat.  And maybe the strict attitude as well.

When I refer to some famous characters or persons in my posts you can probably find the originals from my Pinterest board Characters. To Characters board I'm collecting real people, and people from popular culture and comics. A common factor in all these pictures is that they touch my feelings one way or another. Have a look if you like.

My Style. Bow On Like Charley Chaplin Had in The Fireman 1916.

We have had a marvelous opportunity to see all the very first Charlie Chaplin films in Finland's National Audiovisual Archive. Now the series is over so far. Therefor it's time to post about an style idea I'm going to include to my style.

The idea came from Chaplin's film The Fireman, 1916. Firemen's uniforms were quite different than it is today. A big black bow with big manly mustache was the norm. It seems that in the beginning of 1900 having mustache was more common than being without. The bigger the better.

I don't know if modern men are ready to wear the same. But for my part I'd like to start wearing such a big bow to sweeten my looks.

Seasons. Happy Women's Day 8.3.

 Hi sisters! I wish you all Happy Women's Day with this bouquet of mimosas. Around Finland Women's Day have never been a big celebration but in Russia things are different. In Russia Women's Day is a public holiday. I traveled once to Kostamus, Russia, during Women's Day. And everywhere you turned your eyes there were mimosas. Beautiful yellow mimosas. And men are giving those lovely springlike mimosas to their women.

By the way in Finland women received their full government rights in 1906. First in the whole world. In the election year of 1907 nearly every political party submitted female candidates. 19 women were selected and these women became the worlds first congresswomen.

On the Street. Blue Beanie with Pompom, Kamppi, Helsinki.

Even though it is already Mach, first month of the Spring in Finland, we have had some snowfalls in recent days. Personally I'd already like to turn my back for winter and turn my face to sunlight instead.

Well, I can still get some joy in middle of a snowstorm seeing so fine blue beanie with pompom as in the picture above. I have previously confessed my love for pompoms in the post of Costo. Check it up if you like to read more pompom-stories.

On the Street. Winter Bright Colors, Erottaja, Helsinki.

 

Last weeks have been quite dark around here in Helsinki. Sunlight is rarely seen. At that point it's very refreshing to see some bright colors walking towards on the street. Here are few characters from my sketchbook.

Beauty tip. Just Remember to Smile.

 

Once in the morning when I was putting a little make up, my six-year old daughter looked at me, wondering. After a while she said to me maybe the nicest compliment I had ever received. Mom, you don't need any make up, if you just remember to smile.

Saying that she really hit the nail on the head. That's the best beauty tip I can think of. If we would just remember to smile, how beautiful we would be!

Another version of the same beauty tip we have heard in the marvelous cartoon by Ghibli Studios. In Kiki's Delivery Service (directed by Hayao Miyazaki) mom gave an advice to 13 years old Kiki the which-girl when she headed to her own for a year. The advise was: Remember that your smile is your most beautiful jewelery.

On catwalks nowadays it feels that a true anarchist designer would make all the models smile on the show. I'm just waiting who might be the one.