New York City Mass Transit has a program called MTA Arts for Transitand Urban Design, which commissions artists through a competitive selection process to create original, site-specific permanent artwork for stations. This spring, there was also auditioning for a role of a subway performer. Link and more info here.
Grand Central Diary is a video created by London Squared Productions. It is currently part of the exhibition “On Time / Grand Central at 100” (curated and organized by MTA Arts for Transit and Urban Design). It is now on view through July 7 at the New York Transit Museum Gallery, which is located at the terminal. Grand Central Diary is a short film that shows the everyday routines at the station from a fun and quarky perspective of animated objects at the terminal and nearby.
MINNA SÄRELÄ is a founder of Finnish design collective PALONI,which is coming to New York this weekend to open a pop-up store during the fashion week.PALONI shop will be open through the end of February at the Ivana Helsinki NYC Concept Store. Their motto is: YOU CAN CALL IT DESIGN, INDIE FASHION, ART OR HANDICRAFT. WE CALL IT PASSION.
Firstindigo&Lifestyle: Minna, I was so happy to hear that PALONI is coming to New York, tell me little bit about this ‘invasion’?
Minna: I founded Palonione and a half years back, and lately started to feel that it’s time for the next step, broadening our scope and doing the first international project. New York opened as an opportunity through another Finnish fashion company Ivana Helsinki. After I got to discuss with their crew, things started going forward very fast. Our designers are very excited about this project and the possibilities it offers. We had a total of 37 Finnish designers joining the project, despite a very tight schedule for the preparations. Now it’s not just my project anymore, it’s something we do together. We have a group of 20 Finnish designers coming personally to New York, and together we will promote Finnish design and fashion know-how, build a pop-up store within the Ivana Helsinki NYC Concept Store. We will organize events and parties, network and build ourselves wider horizons for future dreams.
Firstindigo&Lifestyle: When you started the company-collective, who did you include, was it by invitation and with like-minded people?
Minna: When I started, I had 45 designers that I represented. Now I’m trying to settle the number at about 80, although there would be much more demand and need from the designers’ side to join this kind of a platform or network. Still, I think it makes more sense both to our designers and customers that we can concentrate on the people we represent.
At first all of my co-operations with designers started by finding interesting labels or designers, and looking for cooperation. Now I get many requests every week from designers who would like to cooperate. I try to answer them all and to help them all, even if I think there’s something about their line or products they should still work on before going to the market.
Firstindigo&Lifestyle: HOW INTERNATIONAL IS PALONI?
Minna: I see Paloni as “born global”. Even though we’ve only operated in Finland so far, our way of communicating in English, and with international vibes, have brought us international customers and connections, and made our network international. Also our designers come from across the globe, although this New York project concentrates on making Finnish designers’ skills better known.
Firstindigo&Lifestyle:I learned from your website that you have been participating in eco- and sustainable fashion events, what have you learned about this field, and what are your thoughts about this trend?
Minna: I really wish it will not be just another trend among others, but rather a chancing force that will make the whole industry into something different and affect our behavior profoundly. I feel there’s much need for making ethically and ecologically sustainable options available and better known. I don’t believe the change comes from pressuring or from being negative. It needs to stem from each one of us. Personally, I feel that wearing a garment I respect in all ways makes me feel more balanced and respected, too. There’s a lot of discussion and information around this issue, and I’ve learned so much about the debates and aspects in the past years. However, I think offering information will not change it very much – we already get too much information every day. I think we rather need some easy and pleasant ways of loving fashion more sustainably. By bringing together tens of designers that represent this ideology and by offering their offerings as a holistic array and experience, we try to build sustainable design in a pleasant way, and include a wide enough collection to be part of it.
{All photos Paloni: Minna Särelä, captures: Sami Perttilä}
Firstindigo&Lifestyle: WHAT ARE YOUR NEW PROJECTS WITHIN PALONI, AND YOUR EVENTS?
Minna: Simply teamwork. By doing things in a committed team and by supporting each others’ potentials we can reach much more than with big money. The word ‘Paloni’ comes from the Finnish word “my passion”. When you have passion for something, it shows. And when it shows, others get excited too. And when that happens, impossible things become possible.
Firstindigo&Lifestyle: What do you expect from your visit in New York, how many times have you visited?
Minna: Although I haven’t been in New York many times, it’s one of my favorite cities in the world. I think each one of our designers have big and very different expectation. Personally, I expect networking, finding new inspiration and ideas, -these two things combined can lead the way to something new and unexpected.
Firstindigo&Lifestyle: Is Paloni hoping to bring the products here, or will operate via the e-shop?
Minna: The Paloni pop-up will be open inside Ivana Helsinki NYC Concept Store from February 11th until February 28th. This is a good chance to see, feel and try on the products in person. However, we also have an online store through which we have worldwide shipping at all times. The collection we’re presenting in New York are these designers’ new spring-summer collections. New Yorkers will have the privilege of getting to buy these items first – they will only become available in our Helsinki-store and our online store in March. Our online store has all this information in English, and can be found from www.paloni.fi/store
Firstindigo&Lifestyle: Welcome to New York!
Minna: Thank you! And welcome to our opening party on Wednesday Feb. 13th at Ivana Helsinki NYC Concept Store! We will have DJ Fiona Timantti playing Finnish music, and you’ll have the chance to meet our designers in person.
Read also story about Scandinavian Design in this blog
Anna Zaigraeva lives in New York City and works as a Russian to English translator. She designs beadwork jewelry in her spare time.
-Anna, tell us how you started doing these and when?
– I learned beadwork from my best childhood friend back in Moscow. We were both ten. Since I moved to the States, I’ve mostly just continued to learn by trial and error – I don’t subscribe to magazines or beading clubs or anything like that. So I’m not a hot-shot technique-savvy beader by any stretch of the imagination.
-How long did it take to learn?
– Not very long. They are difficult to make, but not because the stitches are tricky. It just takes a lot of time to pick and choose the right bead. I use high-quality Japanese Miyuki size 15/0 beads, which are pretty uniform compared to other brands, but even they are not uniform enough to simply string them at random and hope the pattern comes out. I have to constantly compare the fringe I’m working on against the previous one, to see if the next bead needs to be thinner or fatter to make the pattern work best. When beads are marketed as being the same size, it just means they have the same width and hole diameter – thickness varies quite a bit. But this is what sets my necklaces apart from others that use patterned fringes: I hand-pick each of the 7000 beads specifically for its place in the necklace, and I also make sure the fringe is not too loose or too taut. So the pattern comes out as close to perfect as possible.
– Are the supplies easy to get?
– There are a lot of bead suppliers out there, so the main problem is price shopping. My best purchases usually come from the discount bins of the Toho Shoji store on 37th street.
– What inspired you to make these necklaces?
– My very first fringe necklace was inspired, as far as I recall, by a coral reef. The design I first chose was symmetric but extremely difficult – the necklace took me probably upwards of forty or fifty hours to finish, and I made a ton of mistakes. I’d like to try making it again at some point – it was different and interesting. Unfortunately, given how long it takes, it’d probably be too expensive to unload afterwards. But that’s all right. I might just end up giving it away to a friend.
– So the first one took fifty hours, what about the ones that you made after that?
– After that, I adjusted the pattern slightly, and they now usually take between 20 and 30 hours, depending on how many colors I use. The simplest pattern I make is solid diamonds – four colors and a border. It always takes several hours just to pick out the colors and make a sample. I usually end up trying out several combinations until I find the one that works best.
– Are they heavy?
– No, they’re actually super light. People are always surprised by this, since each necklace has about 7000 beads. But miyuki seed beads are very lightweight. So the necklaces rarely weigh in over 25 grams. And I recently started using even smaller beads – Czech size 15/0 rather than Japanese, so they’ve gotten even lighter. My new House Stark necklace with a direwolf head weighs only 13 grams, and that’s only because it has a rather big toggle clasp.
Firstindigo&Lifestyle 