Finnish designer Jimi Vain presented his new collection at Men’s Fashion Week in Florence, accompanied by a PlayStation. Vain previously designed a work outfit for McDonald’s in Finland.
Pitti Uomo is the world’s most important men’s fashion event. And Jimi Just a self-made designer. That’s why this is an exceptional fashion event for Finland.
Reinola tells me on the phone that the fashion show went well. She and Särmö are still in Florence.
– The feedback has been very positive. We have generated a lot of interest.
“We rented a Renaissance palace”
The Vain clothing brand’s collection was presented in an old Renaissance palace that Särmö and Reinola rented.
– The evening went really well, and there were a lot of people, says Reinola.
The fashion show was held three times to accommodate everyone who wanted to participate.
– We staged a four by four meter black square in the middle of the hall, where we had staged an imaginary young person’s own room from the beginning of the 21st century.
The space had, among other things, a bed, a TV and a playbox, and all 16 models walked into that square to do something, such as play playbox or browse cartoons. In the end, everyone left the \”room\” one by one.
According to Reinola, the Vain brand received a huge number of contacts after the screening, but by the time of this interview, Särmä and Reinola had not yet had time to go through them.
According to Reinola, making the first complete collection was challenging.
– Let’s put it this way, the Florence collection didn’t get to the finish line easily, but we were able to make it exactly the way we wanted in the final games.
McDonald’s got recycled clothes
The collection presented in Florence was inspired by the growing environment of Särmö and Reinola. Both grew up in a small town in South Ostrobothnia at the beginning of the first decade of the 21st century.
Särmo has older siblings.
– Jimi has looked at the world a bit as filtered by his older siblings, says Reinola.
older brothers’ video games, cartoons and music interested me. All of that can also be seen in the Vain brand’s collection.
– It is directly the world in which one’s own interests have been mirrored. And the global world and pop culture seen as outsiders.
Vain collaborated with the American hamburger chain McDonald’s last year. The advertising agency used by the company’s Suomen restaurants contacted the Vain brand and asked that Särmö design work clothes for hamburger restaurants in Finland. The project received 200 million views on social media.
– It was an interesting project for us. We decided that we would make new outfits out of McDonald’s old recycled work clothes.
The outfits were distributed in a raffle to McDonald’s employees in Finland.
*You can discuss the topic on 13.1. until 23:00.*