Hello from Helsinki design week and Habitare 2016

Summer seems definitely on it’s return and I am happy I could spend some wonderful sunny days in Helsinki with this bunch of happy people the other week. Tomorrow my last Helsinki post about the young designer area at the fair will be up on the blog and later on I will show you my favourite conceptstore and finds.Invited by Habitare, me and 4 other bloggers, AgathaElisabettaRiikka and Stefan had a great time enjoying the fair and Design week in the city. Let me take you there where we celebrated the opening of Habitare and Design week the first night together with the international press, and to be honest I couldn’t think of a better way to start then at the actual Alvar Aalto Studio.

A wonderful all white building with lots of black and white pictures on the wall, iconic furniture pieces throughout the building and a green courtyard, we had a small tour through the actual studio with the most amazing and funny guide I ever met. A lovely dinner and music and drinks in the garden and much more fun to come.

 

 

 

I stayed in Helsinki for 5 days, and as I spent some time at the fair I came back with lots of press material, I will show of my favourites in the coming weeks and upload some pictures at my Habitare Pinterest album. We had so much fun and Elena and Annika did a great job showing us some of the best stores and factories and wonderful restaurants like the one above called Särkänlinna, located in an old fortress on the island of Särkkä, Kiitos ladies!

Free Time
There was a bit of free time to walk around and do some shopping, Hotel Haven where we stayed was right in the center and had a great view on the Sea and the Food market,  some weird food there… reindeer potato chips… sliced beer in a tan, mmm no thanks! Instead I did enjoy visiting some of the new concept stores…
World of TRE
TRE is a new flagship store for Finnish design, 90% of all things sold at TRE are from Finnish designers, shop at TRE for design, furniture, lifestyle products, organic cosmetics and fashion, in the back you can grab a coffee or have lunch at the small Cargo Cafe

 

 

Marimekko store and factory visit
I really felt in ‘Marimekko land’ a few times, no wonder as the iconic brand is one of Finlands best known brands for home furnishings, textiles and fashion. The picture above I made in the store in Helsinki… please note the amazing Artek chair… more about Artek tomorrow! Although I am more familiar with the home collection, Marimekko is really fanmous for it’s fabric and made important contributions to fashion in the sixties.
We had a visit at the Marimekko factory plannend, something I really like as I love industrial buildings. We had a tour along the designing studio, huge rolls of fabric, tons of paint and finally got to see the printing process from beginning to end, from the first small drawing on white fabric, to adding colour after colour and ending up with a bold print. More pictures in my Habitare Pinterest album

 

 

In search for coffee… thanks for this picture Agatha 😉

These pictures were made during design week Helsinki and Habitare 2016,Finland’s leading event for furniture and interior decoration and design, find all my posts about Helsinki under
‘habitare’ and have a look at this Habitare Pinterest album