You’ll Never Guess Where We Found Summer’s Most Flirtatious Hat: In Finland
La dolce vita: Three words that conjure Fellini films, summer romances à la Roman Holiday, and a style that’s highly sophisticated, but not formal. Qualities, in other words, that you wouldn’t expect to find up north in Finland. Still, we managed to sniff them out in Samu-Jussi Koski’s Zen-like Samuji flagship in Helsinki in the form of a straw pom-pom hat and sandals that have a giddy, retro, appeal to rival that of Simon Porte Jacquemus’s gargantuan hat of the summer of 2018.
If these accessories look like they “speak” Italian it’s not only because they were made there; Koski studied for his Master’s degree in Florence under the tutelage of Linda Loppa, and he seems to have absorbed elements of the Latin culture. The starting point for Samuji’s summer topper was a piece in the archive of a small family-owned company Koski works with in Italy. (The same one that made the hats for Pretty Woman.) The designer changed the proportions of the original, discovered some pom-poms elsewhere; added one to the other, mixed them together, and guarda! “I think I’m a little bit romantic, even though it’s hard to be in this world,” Koski shyly admits, “but I think it’s important.”
Also high on this Finn’s list of priorities is “improving every day life with timeless designs.” The less his work seems à la mode, the happier Koski is. “Fashion people are a little bit like, ‘What [is he] doing? This is not fashion at all!’ and then I’m feeling even more confident in what I’m doing somehow,” the designer tells Vogue.
The soft spoken Koski’s entry into fashion came, surprisingly, by way of Techno: when it was introduced in his small village there were no places to buy clothes to match the music, so he started making his own. After spending 10 years at Finland’s iconic Marimekko, the designer considered taking a break, to “take care of lambs or garden,” but couldn’t shake the pull of his calling. He launched his own label in 2011, aimed at “thinking women,” and focused on lifestyle. “I like clothes, per se, but fashion is something that actually somehow irritates me,” says Koski. “It doesn’t feel the same that it was. I don’t know if it’s my age or [how long] I’ve been working in [the industry], but somehow I feel that it’s something deeper. It’s something that’s happening in the world as well, people are not so interested any more in trends. I see that I want to do like a perfect tee or hotel or”.... a flirtatious hat, maybe?
Originally Appeared on Vogue
