Sibling Designer Duo Laitinen

Tuomas Laitinen and his little sister Anna create superbly tailored menswear with offbeat, artistic details. For A/W 2010, Laitinen offers delicate knits and biker jackets that look ripped from King Kong. The siblings grew up in a Finnish town near the Russian border with a mother who turned heads in Comme des Garçons. She nurtured their anomalous passions for art and fashion. Tuomas’ took him to London where he studied at Central Saint Martins and shopped himself broke in Helmut Lang. Anna studied Fine Art, honing a talent which would shape Laitinen’s beautiful prints. Their Helsinki-based brand took off after they received a special mention at the Festival d'Hyeres in 2006. Despite international success, they’ve maintained the 'outsider' mentality of their remote childhood. Here they discuss designing, the downturn and avoiding fashion cliques.    

Dazed Digital: What inspired Laitinen A/W 2010?

Tuomas Laitinen: I stumbled across this book with incredible pictures of Finnish juvenile prisoners in the 19th century. At the time there were no uniforms, so everybody was wearing the outfits they had on at the time of their arrests. When those clothes started decaying they were layered with all sorts of hand-downs, even women's clothes. The prisoners came from all walks of life; there were beggars, murderers and impoverished aristocrats all living in the same dungeons. That strange mix was the starting point.



DD: Can you tell me about the fabrics and why you chose them?


Tuomas Laitinen: We are picky with fabrics and tend to go over budget when choosing them. We use a lot of fine wools from Italy. They fray beautifully after they've been washed. We like that our clothes have a lived-in look without being too distressed and that's why many pieces are garment-dyed or washed. Then there are the prints, which we design in collaboration with photographer Chris Vidal. 



DD: Did you employ any new techniques this time around?


Tuomas Laitinen: We work with shearling for almost every autumn-winter season. This time we did tailored coats and leather biker jackets, which were literally sliced in two in a way that the front panels were wool or leather and the whole back was Tibetan lamb. When you wear those pieces it really looks like you've been eaten by a gorilla.



DD: Which designers did you admire as a student?
Tuomas Laitinen: I'm afraid I was and still am horribly predictable. I was obsessed with Helmut Lang and loved the Japanese and the Belgians too. During my studies 
there was this great 90s moment going on with the second generation of 
Antwerp designers, which of course has shaped my taste and overall view on 
fashion. But I also liked designers like Geoffrey Beene and Bill Gibb, who were really different my other heroes.

 

DD: Anna, how do you apply your fine arts expertise to fashion?


Anna Laitinen: When I graduated from high school it seemed natural to study art since I
was quite good in drawing, etc. During my studies got interested in fashion, so the transition was very smooth. For me it's important to create something with my hands, that's why so much of the knitwear is hand-knitted. Knitting is about exploration, trying new techniques and structures. It resembles making an art piece, because you don't know with what you might end up with and that can be very painful and frustrating.

DD: Your style is very Scandinavian, quite dark and melancholic. 


Anna Laitinen: For us, using mainly dark colours is natural since we can't see each other glowing in neons any time soon. The collection is quite small, so a limited colour palette keeps it cohesive. Our stores and clients aren't too crazy about colours, which is another reason why we have stayed on the dark side. Finnish fashion is still known for all those super-colourful Marimekko prints of the 1960s, so I guess we are also fighting against that tradition.



DD: Why did you decide to focus solely on menswear after 2009?


Anna Laitinen: The collection has always been pretty androgynous and there are a lot of girls wearing our menswear. By concentrating on the men's side we could expand our product range, which also had a positive impact on sales. It would be nice to re-launch the women's collection in few years time, since there is demand for that, but for now we're concentrated on further developing the men's.

DD: How has the economic downturn affected your company?


Anna Laitinen: Luckily not that much. In a recession designers often get too conservative, but you really have to push the envelope to keep your clients interested, especially if you're a relatively young designer selling a rather pricey product. Our customers really want us to be true to our style and we're very grateful to all of our buyers for their trust and loyalty. 


DD: Tuomas, you had an outsider mentality early in your career. Now that you're thriving has this changed?


Tuomas Laitinen: I think Anna and I are always going to feel a bit like outcasts. We hate being put into boxes and tend to thrive away from any sorts of tribes or the clicks one often finds in the fashion world. Of course we're more or less inside the game and have been for quite some time, but I think it's important to be able to see the bigger picture, be critical and also have a life outside the fashion world.



Photography by Chris Vidal