Fashion Around The World: Welcome To Finland

Alberto (Beto) Guzmán Abundes is a Mexican who lives in Finland. He takes photos and keeps a blog at chingatumoda.com. We thought it would be interesting to see how he sees Finnish fashion, as a guy coming from such a different environment. Here’s what he wrote to us:

Style is a very subjective term and in Finland this word is used even more loosely than in let’s say the more snobby fashion capitals like Paris or Milano. As a young man you usually favour practicality and comfort, but when you start working and buying more you then find yourself balancing trend and comfort.

Finland is a very cold country, summers last only a couple months and even such months are colder than Cabo, Mexico  of course. Finnish design is full of prints and options, if you are a woman.. there are of course some brands that design for us like Daniel Palillo, Dusty, Tiger of Sweden and urban shops like Acolyth in Helsinki who offer a wide variety of options the only problem of course is well the price and the risk of having the exact same thing as the guy sitting next to you in a bar.

Finland like all other Nordic capitals is very expensive so style is not only limited by the price but by the offer, size of the thrift shops and big retailers like Hennes & Mauritz (H&M), Zara and Jack and Jones. Soon we will have our first Abercrombie store in Helsinki will for sure change the landscape a bit, even if you can find already people dressed up in the latest Abercrombie tees and Hollister shorts you undoubtedly see more jeans, jackets and regular looking shirts from H&M.

I would say that there are four kinds of guys you will find in Finland, doesn’t matter if they are foreign or local.

1. The Hipster/skater dude, he will be wearing Nike 3.0 , Puma or Karhu shoes paired with a set of skinny pants a snap back from an American baseball team and a vintage tee. He can be wearing ray bans all along or have a fluffly baseball style jacket.
2. The trendy dude, he will be wearing red/blue/green skinny pants a shirt in any color , bowtie, a Bruno Mars hat and vintage shoes or loafers, he will have either a mustache or a beard (if he can actually grow any)
3. The minimalist tree-huger, he will wear skinny jeans awful oversized t-shirts and colourful converse shoes that look as if they could disintegrate in any moment. He is probably a vegan so he will have multiple pins in his backpack denoting his commitment to soy.
4. Metal man, he really doesn’t care about trend or fashion, he wears a band tshirt from a concert from 1995, regular cut jeans in some blue you would never find outside the 1990’s and tennis shoes in brown or black.

Where do I fall within these? Well depends on the day I have to say that I do love to have nice designer glasses (my current glasses are Prada) a nice vintage tshirt and sweatpants. I also wear red pants or corduroy paired with a nice shirt either from Marimekko or H&M.The oversized shirts are not for me as I’m pretty short these would probably look like dresses.

I always have Nike 6.0 shoes or brown boots in winter, I like color so I have t-shirts in fluorescent blue and yellow I like to wear bright colors and if I can afford it I do buy really cool bright pieces. I leave a two day beard sometimes (my friend Tytti calls it the good daddy beard) and my haircut is short, like razor short on the sides and a dandy gelled top every day unless I’m hung-over then it’s just a snapback, Elmo or a Boston cap.

I usually buy my clothes abroad either in NY or Texas, I have to be careful to find things that work for Finland as temperatures drop to -30 in the peak of winter. I keep my style very Williamsburg but coherent with the Scandinavian feel, I do wear the oversized scarf and grey winter jackets on winter it is darker but I always keep some colourful piece in sight.

I mean I say fuck it I have to deal with snow and darkness already; I might as well feel comfortable while I walk home through the frozen streets.

Alberto (Beto) Guzmán

P.S. What do you think of Alberto and his style? What do you make of Nordic fashion? Share your comments below!