A podcast series of six episodes addresses the Design Museum’s comprehensive, topical themes by inviting fashion designers and other fashion influencers and professionals to the studio. Published weekly, the podcasts discuss fashion and design with sustainability, creativity, data and craft experts, among others. The podcast is hosted by programme director Anni Korkman.
The Intimacy exhibition situates at the intersection of novel politicization and digital disruption of fashion. It updates our understanding of Finnish clothing and accessory design into the 2020s, exploring the intimate relationship between the body and the clothes we wear. It introduces visitors to the creative design process, from initial sketches to the finished products. The exhibition also highlights the impact of digitalization and datafication on the work of the designer as well as the mechanisms through which fashion is manufactured, distributed and consumed. It is based on extensive research on the work of the most prominent Finnish fashion designers of the 2020s and beyond, as well as that of the more anonymous designers behind contemporary work uniforms and wearable technology. The exhibition is curated by Professor Annamari Vänskä and researchers from her research group, post-doctoral researcher Jenni Hokka and PhD-researcher Natalia Särmäkari from Aalto University. Intimacy is part of the research consortium Intimacy in Data-driven Culture (IDA), funded by the Strategic Research Council at the Academy of Finland. The research project explores, among other things, how intimacy functions as the driving force of creative economy, including fashion.
The podcast continues on the discussion launched by the exhibition, offering points of view for those unable to visit the exhibition in person. This site focuses on the two episodes in English. You can find rest of the episodes by clicking here.
Jakso 2: Fashion echoes change
In the second episode, we discuss how fashion, like any other form of art or discipline of design, is not neutral. How can fashion designers dissipate the stigma of fatness and produce non-discriminatory fashion? Is the ability to dress up as one wants – to fully express oneself – a privilege? Guests are designers Ervin Latimer and Henna Lampinen. The host is Programme Director Anni Korkman.
Ervin Latimer is a fashion designer and creative director of Latimmier, a fashion label he founded in 2021. Alongside design work Latimer writes and lectures on the intersections of queer-culture, anti-racism, masculinity and fashion. In 2020, Latimer won the Finland’s Young Designer of the Year award.
Henna Lampinen is a designer who in her work combines material-based research with experimental design methods. Through her work, Lampinen explores how fashion design can help dispel the stigma associated with obesity and ease the social rules related to clothing. In 2019, she won the prestigious Designers’ Nest award at Copenhangen Fashion Week.
Listen to the second episode of Intiimin kosketus -podcast in iTunes, Spotify or Radio Helsinki‘s site.
Jakso 5: Manual labour in the digital world
The digitalisation of fashion has changed the design processes, clothing and the fashion experience in general. Clothing can be only virtual, such as in games or on a digital catwalk. How does designing a digital dress differ from designing a physical one? Can the new technology challenge the old heavy structures of fashion business? The guests are PHD researcher from Aalto University and one of the curators of the exhibition, Natalia Särmäkari and the founder and CEO of Fabricant, Kerry Murphy.
Natalia Särmäkari is a dissertation researcher from the Department of Design at the Aalto University School of Art and Design and one of the three curators of the Design Museum’s Intimacy exhibition. In her dissertation focusing on field of fashion and design research, Natalia explores the creators place in the technologizationing profession of fashion designers, with a particular focus on digital fashion. She has a background in fashion design and has worked in various positions in both fields of industry and culture. Natalia was a visiting Fulbright researcher at the Parsons School of Design in New York, and is currently working on an IDA project funded by the Academy of Finland’s Strategic Research Council (SRC), in a work package studying digitalization & data relative to creative work.
Kerry Murphy is the founder of The Fabricant, a digital fashion house leading the fashion industry towards a new sector of digital-only clothing. His education is in film and visual effects and he worked in the advertising industry for companies like Facebook, Nike, Asics, Under Armour, Playstation, Philips and many more for over a decade, before establishing The Fabricant full-time in 2018 following two-years of technical and business development. Finland-native Kerry combines his technical 3D/VFX, creative direction and business skills to form the foundation of The Fabricant.
Listen to the fifth episode of Intiimin kosketus -podcast in iTunes, Spotify or Radio Helsinki‘s site.
This podcast is a collaboration between Helsinki Design Weekly, the Designmuseum in Helsinki and Finnish Textile and Fashion.
In collaboration with the Design Museum Helsinki. Exhibitions, design shop and a café. Free entry for anyone under 18 and with the Museum card. You can also find us online at designmuseum.fi/en.
This podcast is produced in collaboration with Finnish Textile & Fashion. Our association promotes the success of the Finnish textile and fashion businesses, globally. Find us online at stjm.fi/en.
