Last Summer Weekend

I have a feeling that last weekend was the last summer weekend. And I'm very happy that we made the most of it by eating al fresco twice. A sunset beach picnic on Friday evening, Saturday breakfast picnic in the park, and then a visit to the local Farm stand. Sunday started with exercise outdoors and ended with a nice take-out meal.  I let the pictures speak... 

We almost joined the yoga class going on behind us, but then decided that we'd have more fun just watching :-)

Saturday's lovely breakfast picnic location

BTW, I'm wearing more Marimekko from the Uniqlo! 

The tomatoes were YUM with some fresh mozzarella, the kale became two dishes: chips and sauteed kale with mushrooms, and the butternut squash was peeled, cut to slices, covered with olive oil and spices and roasted to perfection. 

My Marimekko love

 I've always been a huge fan of Marimekko. Any fellow Finn will understand my affinity to this brand that stands for making the everyday more fun and colorful, and give women clothes that they can move in, are comfortable, and don't make you look like a sex symbol. Marimekko is as far from sexy evening wear as Trump is from Biden. Both are clothes meant to strategically cover our body but in the opposite ends of the sprectrum. With Marimekko clothes comes a certain sense of freedom. To be who you are, to be a little louder, a little braver, to let your personality show a little more. Lately we've been lucky with the Marimekko collections for Uniqlo - so fun, so inexpensive, and pretty decent quality. I've gone a little nuts every time a new collection has dropped, but this dress became my summer favorite. It's so easy to wear, wash (dries super quick and no ironing needed), pack (no wrinkles), and I think it looks cool too. I've been wearing it with my super comfy Fitflops sandals and Staud bag. My only regret is that I didn't snatch this dress up in the other colorway before it sold out. 

Marimekko & BR

It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that I'm a big Marimekko fan. It's in my Finnish blood. I have a few Marimekko pieces that I've worn to death. They're definitely the calmer versions of Marimekko  as I'm really not that big on the big bright prints on me, although I do admire them on others. For me a little goes a long way. Anyway, I was quite happy when I heard that Banana Republic (one of my favorite stores) is doing a Marimekko collection this spring. And the clothes look quite good. I will definitely order something, right now I'm tempted by the Jurmo peplum top. Let's see if I can get one when they go on sale next week.

Finnish Fashion at NY Fashion Week

The NY fashion week that ended a week ago, was historical in a sense that there were two Finnish fashion houses showing their collections during the fashion week, Ivana Helsinki and Marimekko.

Marimekko showed for the first time ever, and used a very eclectic model line-up, including old supermodels Carmen Dell'Orefice, Carol Alt and Pat Cleveland.

Here is some coverage:

http://news.instyle.com/2012/09/11/marimekko-fashion-week-debut/

http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/columns/luke-leitch/TMG9535072/New-York-Fashion-Week-Marimekko-springsummer-2013.html

You can watch the Marimekko show here:

http://blog.alwaysmod.com/2012/09/14/marimekko-nyfw-fashion-show/

I only found this one link for Ivana Helsinki's show:

http://www.skimbacolifestyle.com/2012/09/fashion-ivana-helsinki-ss-2013.html