In
today’s multiplicity of industrial apparels one finds a renewed interest
in individuality expressed through one-of-a-kind clothing. This type of dress
production echoes the concept of fashion salons whose heyday declined at
the end of the 1960s.A Study of Riitta Immonen’s Creations in the Finnish
Fashion House Tradition
Doctoral Dissertation
In
today’s multiplicity of industrial apparels one finds a renewed interest
in individuality expressed through one-of-a-kind clothing. This type of dress
production echoes the concept of fashion salons whose heyday declined at
the end of the 1960s.
Fashion salons invoke images of luxury and keeping up with the latest trend. However, a closer look reveals comfort, confidence and timelessly wearable beauty which remain ever interesting. A unique dress may be “loose inside and tight outside”—a combination of comfortable freedom and graceful line. It functions as a passepartout—a harmonious zone accentuating the wearer.
Creating a Unique Dress is a multimethod case study which bridges the past and the present in investigating individual, handcrafted dresses. Unique dresses and dressmaking are studied in relation to fashion, craft, and their overlapping field which is often referred to as couture. The career of one fashion designer, Riitta Immonen, offers a spatio-temporal context in postwar Finland. Central to the study are the designing and making-up processes, products, and the clients’ conceptions of their dresses and their patronage of the couturière.
A hard back publication in English from Akatiimi Oy, about 300 pages with 61 illustrations.
About the photo: ‘Blue Wing’ dress by Riitta Immonen; photo by Seppo Konstig, used with permission of the photographer.
Ritva Koskennurmi-Sivonen
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