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Miia Koski : "Pre Helsinki"
by Modem – Posted October 18 2013
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The person in charge of Development and Business Relations, gave us answers to our questions.

Interview with Miia Koski from the collective showroom Pre Helsinki.

Interview with Miia Koski, in charge of Development and Business Relations at Pre Helsinki.


The showroom is named after the city your coming from. May you explain why ? 

We want to communicate the place we come from. Helsinki is our home and even thought we all work internationally our roots are here and this is where we get our inspiration from. We also want to communicate about a joint effort by Helsinki-based designers and tell that something very interesting is happening here right now.

 
In your opinion, are the designers very representative for your city ?  What do you 
want to transmit ?


The designers that Pre Helsinki represents have quite different styles and aesthetics but what is representatively Finnish is the high quality, good design and attention to detail. The feedback we got for example in Paris is that Finnish fashion design is quite different from what's going on elsewhere at the moment and from other Scandinavian design. It's quite unique, fresh and interesting.
 

Presenting the designers here in Paris means to offer them the opportunity to generate 
access to the market and the professional public. Besides of the plat-forme, what does 
your support contains ? And how would you describe your role ?


Pre Helsinki is primarily a communicative platform. We raise awareness about Finnish fashion design both by doing international events and organising a yearly fashion event in Helsinki where we invite international journalists and buyers. The international events such as the showroom in Paris are both for PR and sales. So of course we also have a business angle and try to help the designers grow their businesses and boost sales.
We help the designers get funding and act as a collaborative platform to increase the cooperation within the industry. We believe it's more effective to do joint projects especially abroad to get more attention, broader audience and to share costs.


How do you detect the emerging designers, and, how do you select them for this boost?  

We follow closely the new brands that are being established in Finland and the graduates of Aalto University for example. It's quite easy to keep up with what's going on in Finland since we are a quite small country. We select the designers that have international potential and are ready and willing to grow their brands.


Why would you say  is there a need to empower designers ? How would you describe
the leitmotif behind your activities ?


Our leitmotif is to help emerging Finnish designers grow their business and help create success stories about Finnish fashion. Finland has long tradition in architecture and design but fashion has been neglected for a long time. We have very talented fashion designers but we're lacking the structures to support them when their start their own brands. We want to change that and create a network of designers and fashion industry professionals that share knowledge and help each other. We want to see Finnish fashion design grow as an industry and for that we want to get the attention of investors and governmental institutions.
 

In near future, what will be the next steps, do you have foreseen any particular projects, in terms of expanding your field of activities like showing in other cities as well ? What can we expect ?

We will be back in Paris for the next Women's week in February-March with Pre Helsinki showroom. Our biggest event next year is in Helsinki, 21st - 24th of May where we will showcase Finnish fashion design during 4 days including fashion shows, presentations, seminars, parties etc. In the fall we will be in New York, Paris and possibly Peking.


… thank you for your time!

Thank you! Kiitos! 

For further information…

{{www.prehelsinki.com
info@prehelsinki.com

The team: Sofia Järnefelt (Creative Relations), Miia Koski (Development and Business Relations), Martta Louekari (Public Relations and Marketing), Satu Maaranen (Creative Relations), Vilma Pellinen (Production)

The labels: ensæmble, Heikki Salonen, Laitinen, Marimekko, R/H, Saara Lepokorpi, Sasu Kauppi, Siloa&Mook, SSAW

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