New York, London, Milan, Paris… Tallinn? The Estonian capital is beginning to establish its position as a fashion city, both locally and regionally. Thanks to Tallinn Fashion Week, which had its third annual showing in November 2010, a roster of young designers has emerged, mixing technical proficiency with boundary-pushing ideas.
Estonian style encompasses elements from the country’s Scandinavian and Slavic neighbors, but it is also distinguished by a feeling of ‘country common sense,’ says Tallinn Fashion Week organizer Anu Kikas. ‘Estonian designers have a subtle and sophisticated sense of good taste in fashion,’ she says. ‘They don’t overdo it, but they do it with enough elegance.’Tallinn Fashion Week’s shining stars are distinctive and diverse in their approach to fashion. Aldo Jarvsoo is known for his avantgarde style while Riina Poldroos’ designs are more feminine and classical. London-based Anu Samariiutel is known for her minimalist creations, Piret Ilves uses bright colours and retro cuts, and Liina Stein’s pop-art palette punctuates her sharp silhouettes.
Estonia’s geographic location means designers need to be creative: their designs need to take into consideration their limited natural light, inclement weatherand cold winds.
‘Practical, warm and dark-colored clothing rules the scene,’ says Oslo-trained designer Lilli Jahilo, who focuses on comfort, warmth and practicality. She recently launched a collection of organic bamboo T-shirts and tops alongside wool jersey dresses, wool and mohair-mixed coats, and furs, which have been especially popular this year. Designed in collaboration with an Estonian fur company, her furs can be found at Tallinn’s biggest department store, Kaubamaja.
Meanwhile, Ilves takes a minimalistic, retro approach to fashion design, working from the top-down, ‘I create one shape for a hat, usually felt, and then I modify it,’ she says. ‘The rest of the collection is just built around it. My new collection is all about really simple felt caps and the shape of a cocoon coat for which I have used original patterns from the beginning of the 60s.’
Poldroos, who designs as part of the collective Embassy of Fashion, says her clothes are boldly feminine. Her clients are usually ‘strong, young, independent, intelligent women with a good fashion sense,’ she says. ‘They always stand out in the crowd and enjoy the attention.’
The detailed handiwork required gives her pieces a bespoke feel. Her spring/summer 2011 collection, Lost Couture, is inspired by nature and features handpainted silks, thousands of crystals, a foggy palette and floaty fabrics.
While many designers use their studios as a sales floor, Oksana Tandit sells her wares alongside Mulberry handbags and accessories in the boutique Suda, which opened in October 2010. Tandit’s style is characterized by a new approach to interpreting the classics, using natural fabrics and experimental cuts. Inspired by painters, musicians and dancers, her designs and her autumn/winter 2010 collection, Marionettes, rendered commedia dell’arte characters Columbine, Pierrot and Harlequin fashionable.
Tallinn Fashion Week is not the only venue for local talent. Lilli Jahilo showed her tattoo-inspired autumn/winter collection during Tallinn Design Night in September 2010. Marit Ilison, who designs both pret-a-porter and conceptual lines with an emphasis on fine tailoring and patternmaking, participated in Tallinn Fashion Week last year, but is showing abroad this year* She has worked in London, Paris, and Berlin, and in Antwerp for Bruno Pieters. She showed her latest collectionat the OO: Was It A Dream? event in Stockholm, and the e-culture festival STRP 2010 in Eindhoven, Holland.
Journalist Tanel Veenre, the editor of Moepiibel, notes that despite the compact nature of the Estonian fashion scene, designers are thinking big.’The style is quite elegant, casual and minimalistic at the same time,’ Veenre says.
Kikas describes the essence of Estonian design best: ‘Estonian fashion is wilderness fashion in the best tense of the word. The works of our most distinctive designers demonstrate a strong connection (o the natural world. There’s a primeval deep-woods quality present in our creative atmosphere. It’s unforced and natural.’