my brilliantly talented friend, jason, just sent me a photo from his recent exhibition called the chocolate lab. I was disheartened to miss the exhibit in new york which was a collaboration with the celebrated photographer len prince showcasing chocolate, photographs and textiles.

The business of fashion is precisely that… a business. We are in an era of buy outs, expansion, countless capsule collections, and cheaper and faster clothing. Nevertheless, there are designers who transcend the fashion machine and truly create such as the Finnish designer Heidi Wikar. Wikar is a 2009 graduate of the Royal College of Art whose Singing Silence collection is a narrative between fashion, global warming, and its impact. The collection can be described as “high end sportswear” using elements of down and air insulation. Wikar’s signature design is a continuous dialogue between textile and human motion. Her work has appeared in advertising, and most recently in a modern play of Pinocchio. A few words with the designer across the globe in Finland…

Qualities you most admire in design:  Personality.

Reading:  “November in the Moomin Valley” by Tove Jansson.

Dream project:   Setting up a creative company; designing my own label and produce multidisciplinary fashion shows with colleagues from different disciplines.

Favorite virtue:  Enthusiasm.

Where do you draw inspiration from?  Everyday from everywhere. I like creating rich, story-like concepts from which I develop my collections. My illustrated concepts often become like movie scripts. At the moment, I am especially interested in rural nomadic cultures and environmental issues.

Favorite fashion era.  The Eighties; strong women, playful proportions, wild and colorful.

Where is your favorite destination?   My family’s rustic summer cottage without tap water and electricity on the Finnish west coast. Another favorite is the empty Fells, open landscapes and the Ice Sea

If you could travel in time backward or forward, where would you go?   To 1955 to my mother’s childhood. To dive in the clear waters of the East Sea as they where before the industrialization.

What is your most marked characteristic?   I am playful and stubborn with lots of endurance.

If you could come back as an object, what would it be?   It’s difficult to imagine me as an object, easier as something living or very abstract or phenomena. I would be a cloud.

What can’t you travel without?   Lots of bags…heavy bags!

Whose diary would you like to read?   My grandmother’s.

 Which talent would you most like to have?   Teleportation.

What is your current obsession or addiction?   Hugging.

If you could wake up tomorrow anywhere, where would you pick?   A small and cozy log hut at the Northern edge of Europe where the continent meets the Ice Sea. I would love to go ski-hiking and enjoy the blue silence in the lack of daylight.

photo by alena jascanka