Mai Niemi at Eunique
Eunique Bulletin
Mai Niemi – Fashion with Nordic flair
For Mai Niemi, 2012 is a very special year.
She has now been designing Finnish fashion for 25 years. Her creations succeed in being both timeless and contemporary. This sounds like a contradiction, but it's really not. Niemi just doesn't follow any trends in her designs, and chooses instead to focus on the creativity of the wearer. The concept followed by this Finnish designer is amazingly simple. Mai Niemi uses high-quality materials to develop her charming items of clothing and accessories.
Her laboriously produced ponchos and shawls are real eye-catchers. But that's not all. No woman is required to drop a few pounds in order to be able to wear Mai Niemi's designs, or to perhaps wish for a bit more in some places. After all, fashion should fit the woman, not the other way round. That sounds almost too good to be true but this designer knows what she's talking about. Like many other women, she herself, with her rather petite figure, doesn't match the standard clothes sizes. Mai Niemi decided to make a virtue out of necessity and started creating her own, very individual line of clothing.
The items produced by this designer take the wearer on a journey that, in the case of the Amazon Blanket, may even transport her as far as the Amazonian rainforest. But Mai Niemi doesn't only draw her inspiration from landscapes. A look back at history and the world of fables in particular also provides great stimulus. As for many Finns, the Kalevala also plays a significant role in Mai Niemi's work. This Finnish national epic poem, based on the verbal tradition of myths and heroic sagas, is heavily influenced by nature cults.
For Mai Niemi, these are not merely the stories of her ancestors. On the contrary, she is able to derive something from them for use in her own trade. The notion of sustainability is of central importance in her fashion. Less is more, that's her motto. In her designs, she doesn't just set great store by a high-value product. Rather she invites her customers to combine items in their own existing wardrobe with items from her collection. In this way, this Finn's creations can be seen as an invitation to her customers to themselves be creatively active and thus develop their own fashion line, timeless and yet contemporary.
