Friday 17th April 2026
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Interview: Emmakaisa Soisalo on Nordic fashion

Aini Putkonen
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Interview: Emmakaisa Soisalo on Nordic fashion

When thinking about Finnish fashion, undoubtedly, Marimekko is one of the first brands that comes in mind. Founded in 1951, it is one of the most iconic Finnish design houses. This week we had a chance to interview Emmakaisa Soisalo, the Design and Product Development Manager and Designer at Marimekko. She works under the creative director Anna Teurnell and helps in constructing the collections for Marimekko with the creative director, as well as helping with supply and product development. We asked her what Nordic fashion and designing for a Nordic design house is like.

How would you describe Nordic fashion?
Practicality is one of the key elements of Nordic fashion and design. It is also often associated with minimalism. In general, nature is a great source of inspiration for Nordic designers. For instance, Maija Isola’s 60-year-old Kivet [Marimekko’s iconic print, the name meaning ‘stones’ in Finnish] was inspired by the stones on the yard of the designer herself.

Who would you identify as the Scandinavian fashion icons?
Being a fashion icon means a lot more than clothes for me. The Nordic designer Vuokko Eskolin-Nurmesniemi and the artist Tove Jansson are especially interesting characters, who have always had their own aesthetics.

How does Nordic fashion differ from fashion around the world?
Nordic countries have four distinct seasons, which create endless possibilities for design. The winters are long and fashion needs to be practical, which makes people want to play with and add colour to their lives when the summer comes. This is in line with Marimekko’s design philosophy, which emphasises practicality and the beauty of the everyday. Since the founding of the company, Marimekko has tried to bring joy and colour to the everyday lives of people.

How popular is Nordic fashion in the international market? How will this situation evolve in the future?
Nordic and Finnish fashion are gaining international attention. For instance, Japan has had Marimekko’s biggest market share after Finland for a while now and Nordic design has been very popular there. In addition to Marimekko, Samu-Jussi Koski’s Samuji and Tuomas Merikoski’s Aalto have gained a lot of international attention. I believe that the position of Nordic and Finnish design in the international marketplace will strengthen even further in the future.

Does Marimekko take into account the international audience in fashion design and product development, or is the intended customer base mainly the Nordic region?
Even though Marimekko is heavily a Finnish design company, we do take into account the needs of our international customers in design. Especially due to the globalisation of the previous years, we have developed our collections to take into account the needs and wishes of our international and domestic customers even better.

What is currently your favourite trend?
A perfectly fitted trench coat and a parka are always on the top of my list of favourite trends. I am also always willing to invest in a simple patterned dress. As the spring comes, kaftans are easy and beautiful pieces of clothing, which are suitable for many occasions.

Interview: Emmakaisa Soisalo on Nordic fashion

Aini Putkonen
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0
Interview: Emmakaisa Soisalo on Nordic fashion

 

Aini Putkonen interviews Emmakaisa Soisalo from Marimekko to gure out what NWordic fashion is really about when thinking about Finnish fashion, un- doubtedly, Marimekko is one of the rst brands that comes in mind. Founded in 1951, it is one of the most iconic Finnish design houses. This week we had a chance to interview, Emmakaisa Soisalo, the Design and Product Development Manager and Designer at Marimekko. She works under the creative di- rector Anna Teurnell and helps in constructing the collections for Marimekko with the crea- tive director, as well as helping with supply and product development. We asked her what Nordic fashion and designing for a Nordic design house is like.

How would you describe Nordic fashion?

Practicality is one of the key elements of Nordic fashion and design. It is also often associated with minimalism. In general, nature is a great source of inspiration for Nordic designers. For instance, Maija Isola’s 60-year-old Kivet [Marime- kko’s iconic print, the name meaning ‘stones’ in Finnish] was inspired by the stones on the yard of the designer herself.

Who would you identify as the Scandinavian fashion icons?
Being a fashion icon means a lot more than clothes for me. The Nordic designer Vuokko Es- kolin-Nurmesniemi and the artist Tove Jansson are especially interesting characters, who have always had their own aesthetics.

How does Nordic fashion differ from fashion around the world?
Nordic countries have four distinct seasons, which create endless possibilities for design. The winters are long and fashion needs to be practical, which makes people want to play with and add colour to their lives when the summer comes. This is in line with Marimekko’s design philosophy, which emphasises practicality and the beauty of the everyday. Since the founding of the company, Marimekko has tried to bring joy and colour to the everyday lives of people.

How popular is Nordic fashion in the international market? How will this situation evolve in the future?
Nordic and Finnish fashion are gaining inter- national attention. For instance, Japan has had Marimekko’s biggest market share after Finland for a while now and Nordic design has been very popular there. In addition to Marimekko, Samu- Jussi Koski’s Samuji and Tuomas Merikoski’s Aal- to have gained a lot of international attention. I believe that the position of Nordic and Finnish design in the international marketplace will strengthen even further in the future.

Does Marimekko take into account the international audience in fashion design and prod- uct development, or is the intended customer base mainly the Nordic region?

Even though Marimekko is heavily a Finnish design company, we do take into account the needs of our international customers in design. Especially due to the globalisation of the previous years, we have developed our collections to take into account the needs and wishes of our inter- national and domestic customers even better.

What is currently your favourite trend?

A perfectly matted trench coat and a parka are always on the top of my list of favourite trends. I am also always willing to invest in a simple pat- terned dress. As the spring comes, kaftans are easy and beautiful pieces of clothing, which are suitable for many occasions.

“The music of our generation”

Ellen Peirson-Hagger
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“The music of our generation”

When I wander backstage at Oxford’s O2 Academy to speak to Swim Deep, the psych-rocky Birmingham five-piece supporting Wolf Alice, I find Austin ‘Ozzy’ Williams and Cavan McCarthy curled up on the floor in a narrow dressing room. They refuse seats (words to the effect of “we like the floor” reverberate around me), and quickly offer me a bottle of water. Rock ‘n’ roll. Swim Deep’s second album, Mothers, was released in October last year, and a successful 11- date UK tour culminated in a show at Camden’s famous Roundhouse.

For now, they are back with old mates Wolf Alice, in an environment that’s hardly unfamiliar. Ozzy reminisces about good times spent in Oxford’s very own Purple Turtle and a certain “Jamaican bar down the road”. No longer so keen on Purple Turtle once I explain its Union ownership (“that’s disgusting”), and put-off by Cavan’s memories of what happened last time they were in said Jamaican bar, perhaps it’s for the best when they tell me they are heading off straight after the gig this time around. Initially, Swim Deep were synonymous with Birmingham boys Peace, both bands having come out of Digbeth around 2010 and dubbed as part of the “B-Town Scene” by the largely London-based music press. Cavan expresses bemusement at the term, saying, “yeah we were only joking – everyone took it really seriously. I mean it’s kinda changed now, but at the time…”.

Even more irritating than the labelling of their scene was the labelling of their sound. Ozzy tells me how annoying a lot of their early press was: “I find it bizarre that we were called a guitar band. And we were coined that because maybe people saw us live and we have guitars live, but there’s literally just one guitar-led song on that first album. When there was that big push of indie bands, we were lumped in with them.” Ozzy thinks Swim Deep are “just quite diverse and dynamic, I don’t know… I like neo-psychedelic. I like that. Psychedelic is about stuff that no-one’s heard before and stuff that’s mindbending. Psychedelic music is not what bands that call themselves psychedelic are making at the moment because they’re just copying Can – they’re doing this ride beat with everything, you know. These jangly guitars and stuff. I’ve heard it a million times. It sounds good – don’t get me wrong – I’ve got no qualms with people repeating themselves. But I don’t think that’s how you’re going to make psychedelic music.”

The idea of the working class struggle – for the B-Town scene is all about working lads from Digbeth, of course! – is important to Swim Deep. “I think the proudest moment of my music career was when my first royalties cheque came,” says Ozzy. “It was the same time that these bailiffs were knocking on my mum’s door and I felt so good that I could go out there and say one: ‘Calm down, Mum’ and two: ‘I can pay you guys. Fuck! I can pay you guys! You guys can actually leave.’ I don’t care about headlining the Roundhouse or whatever – that was something of a moment for me.”

This year the band are crowd-funding to help raise money to tour the US. Although signed to major label Sony in the UK, Swim Deep have not been given the off er to release their album in America on the same label, and so have decided to ask their loyal fans for support. Sadly, Ozzy sees this as part of a wider problem. “The whole music industry is terrified of losing their job at the moment because it’s just so ruthless. There’s a lot less risk-taking which is really hindering the music of our generation. It’s making it very content and bland.” Fighting back against that blandness are two of five neopsych rockers clad in the clothes of local vintage, sitting on the grubby floors of venue dressing rooms. Since our March interview the band have announced nine stateside tour dates for this June. Power to the people and all that.

Review: We Are Scientists – Helter Seltzer

Daniel Curtis
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Review: We Are Scientists – Helter Seltzer

We Are Scientists know how to write a chorus. However, what makes Helter Seltzer, their fifth studio LP, quite so exciting is that their pop sensibilities have now been coupled with a synthy sheen. The result? An elevated scale, while channelling enough of the duo’s endearing scuzziness to maintain their recognisable indie-rock sound. This equilibrium, demonstrated effectively by the strong first half of the album, finds gently distorted guitar underscoring new synthy pop hooks, resulting in many of the more immediate tracks sounding massive; indeed, ‘Buckle’, ‘In My Head’ and ‘Too Late’ are a powerful album-opening trinity. Seriously, many of the hooks and melodies (see their tremendous album closer ‘Forgiveness’) simply belong in a live setting.

This keenly-honed pop potency goes hand-in-hand with just how streamlined the album is; just two of the 10 tracks are over four minutes long. This lean songwriting belies the title and the band’s assertion that this is their “messiest” album in ten years. Granted, some of the tonal switches could be smoothed over, such as that between the dreamy ‘Want for Nothing’ and the propulsive ‘Classic Love’, but it feels crude to criticise the band when they achieve so much within such confines. In fact, it is when the album slows down and tends to strain for the more expansive, tentative realms of M83, Chvrches and their synth-pop peers that the album suffers for its ambition. Despite this, the yearning ‘We Need To Have a Word’, which closes the first half, still manages to sound beautiful. Such an adjective might be new for We Are Scientists, but they earn it. Gone is the frenetic distortion of With Love and Squalor (but it does make a resurgence in ‘Headlights’ and the glorious middle eight of ‘Waiting For You’).

“Go be unimpressed – you and all your unfair assumptions”, the band decree in ‘Hold On’. No need: Helter Seltzer is very impressive indeed.

The Oxonian Dandy

Dante OKeefe
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The Oxonian Dandy

Fashion. Clothing. Two independent and not-necessarily-linked concepts. But I find myself asking, what is the point of one without the other? Championing the two, surely, is the aim of any young bullock studying among the dreaming spires. Why (the question truly begs!) trudge up the great staircases of Examination Schools in some decidedly common chinos when one can prance around in a pair of malachite corduroys? Oh, the sound of supple velvet ribbing caressing opposing inner thighs!

In this men’s wardrobe supplement, as I shall call it, I aim to provide insight and advice for the man-about-Oxford who wishes to stand apart from the rest by blending in to the history of this great city, picking up and accepting the mantle generations of well-dressed swain have left.

In this first issue, let us start with the great corner stone of attire: colour. In this modern era, vibrancy is paramount for pre-eminence in the on-looker’s eye. Avoid black at all costs: the progressive nature of our time invites distance from stuffy charcoal and sooty browns of ages gone past.

Having established the need for a posi- tively garish palette, one must take care in pairing garments based on pigment. There’s no worse sight than a variation in hues – you don’t want to look like you’ve just hauled yourself out of a water-well in a Lloyd-Webber musical, donning some awful entire-body, technicolour shell-suit.

It’s all about blocking. They’re all doing it at the moment: Simons, Vavartos, Bidjan- Saberi… they all take meticulous care to assemble an outfit from head to toe based on a common tint. So: stick to what you put together yourself: yellows, reds and oranges could all be integrated into one line-up.

Twin a magenta floral shirt with a vermillion waistcoat and a pair of peach chinos. Now that’s a rather extreme example – but I’m trying to hit the nail with a hammer.

The problem with the modern man at Oxford is he doesn’t block, and he wears too much neutral. You’ll see a chap in the same navy Next jeans and retro bomber jacket strolling down Radcliffe Square that he wears strutting along Park End Street. It’s just saddening.

Style has a time and a place – all the time and everywhere. What separates us from caveman but the desire to dress not in what is convenient or warm, but visually appealing? Absolutely nothing, I tell you. Nothing at all.

For ideas, try browsing the new Statement T line from Tom Ford. If you’re on a budget, cheaper alternatives can be found all over the web – Asos marketplace does the job nicely. Or, for those who prefer to see what they buy face-to-face, just take a look upstairs in Toast (it’s on the HighStreet, opposite Brasenose). I can particularly commend the (on-sale!) silk button-up pyjamas.

Review – Animal Collective at the O2 Ritz

Richard Birch
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Review – Animal Collective at the O2 Ritz

Kurt Cobain has a lot to answer for. Flannel shirts, quiet/loud dynamics (it’s nothing new godsake, Zeppelin did it) and the creation of a culture where it’s apparently embarrassing for a ‘high art’ band to be ashamed of playing their biggest hits. As with Nirvana, so with Animal Collective.

Song after song from the latest album was interspersed with judicious spatterings from the back catalogue – and when they actually brought these tracks out (such as the more Pop-like ‘Daily Routine’ from Merriweather Post Pavilion), the mood finally picked up; with people going from a semicatatonic sway to actual dancing. ‘Alvin Row’ from their debut formed something of a focal point to the show, its jarring psychedelic euphoria showing what it is that makes Animal Collective one of the best bands of the 21st century. The quality of the show itself was undeniably high. Sound levels were used to great effect to enhance the power of the vocal melodies, creating a pseudo-religious atmosphere with ethereal organ and Gregorian chant style harmonies. Trippy as fuck, in other words.

Harking back to the glory days of Pink Floyd’s psychedelic light shows, the back wall of the stage was constantly glowing multifarious colours and patterns. Totemic smiling faces stood behind the band, alternating from red to blue to appearing as if fishes were swimming against an azure background. There is no denying that the light show formed a crucial part of the ‘art’ of the show – it was, honestly, breathtaking.

Despite the quality of the music and the light show, however, there was something fundamentally missing from the night. My temptation is to blame it on the pretensions of the band’s set list, but whatever it was, it is evident that people simply weren’t feeling it – and if the Manchester crowd aren’t feeling it, then God help any other.

Vote Leave hold public meeting at St Hugh’s

Guy Bennett-Jones
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Vote Leave hold public meeting at St Hugh’s

House of Commons  leader Chris Grayling and UKIP MP Douglas Carswell led a Vote Leave public meeting in St Hugh’s College on Saturday. Addressing a crowd of over 150 people, including many activists and volunteers, they presented the case for leaving and stressed the need for more volunteers and donations.

“We’re having to say no to doctors from India and engineers from Singapore and we can’t say no to people with criminal records from Eastern Europe. It’s an absurd system and we need to take back control.”

Douglas Carswell

Vote Leave was designated the official leave campaign last week. It is a cross-party platform chaired by Labour MP Gisela Stewart and featuring members from UKIP and the Conservative party. There was also a member of Liberal Leave attending the public meeting.

Carswell’s opening speech focused on the need to reclaim border controls, the £350 million sent to the EU each week and the lack of democracy in the EU.

He claimed that open borders hurt the university, “Oxford University needs to be able to attract the brightest and the best… But look at the effects of the immigration system. We’re having to say no to doctors from India and engineers from Singapore and we can’t say no to people with criminal records from Eastern Europe. It’s an absurd system and we need to take back control.”

Grayling targeted Oxford students regarding a ‘housing crisis’ in the UK, “The official statisticians of this country are saying that our population is going to rise over the next twenty years from 63 million to around 80 million. I do not believe we can possibly sustain an increase in population that big…We don’t have the houses.

“This is not about the people that are already here paying into our economy. It’s about looking to the future.”

Chris Grayling

“For the next generation, for those of you who are students in this room it really matters to you. How on earth are we going to deal with an already very difficult housing situation in this country if we are bringing into Britain every year a city the size of Newcastle? Yes, if we stay in the European Union we cannot limit flows of immigration to this country.”

Grayling dismissed the idea that any students would be deported, and said, “One of the things being put out by the other side is that somehow [all your European friends will] have to go home. That does not happen… There are clear international conventions that are under the United Nations, not under the European Union, that say if migration rules change you can’t deport somebody afterwards. And we wouldn’t want to. This is not about the people that are already here paying into our economy. It’s about looking to the future.”

Carswell noted that everyone in Oxford has received the government’s recent pro-EU leaflet. “The government can spend £9.3 million and deliver one of those to every household in the country by simply pushing a few buttons. But when we do it, we need an army of leafleters to deliver it. They spent more on that one leaflet than Vote Leave is allowed to spend in the entire campaign.”

Liz St Clair, an organising member of Vote Leave, commented, “We’re working with various groups all over the country including in London, Oxford, Reading, Southampton. We’ve got strong student teams active for Leave under both Vote Leave and Students for Britain.”

An attending representative of Oxford students for Britain, the Eurosceptic counterpart to Oxford Students for Europe, told Cherwell, “I think that much of what was discussed here was of real importance in coming to understand our oft vexed relationship with Europe. The high turnout was very heartening for the Eurosceptic cause that OSfB promotes.

“Students for Britain is a really nice group of friends, working our hardest to spread our Eurosceptic ideals to the student body at large.”

Grayling was a last minute replacement for John Whittingdale, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, who was under pressure over an alleged relationship with a sex worker.

 

Spotlight: Drama and identity

Alex Barasch
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Spotlight: Drama and identity

Explorations of gender through drama have come to the fore in Oxford this week. On Saturday, Not Your Nice Girl will present BEARDS; on Sunday, a workshop at St Peter’s will evaluate the role of gender in Hamlet and Shakespearean casting more broadly as part of the OUDS Shakespeare Celebrations. While the first woman to play Hamlet did so in the 18th century, Maxine Peake’s recent turn as the Prince of Denmark still sparked controversy, setting off a flurry of articles about “the perils of gender-crossed Shakespeare.”

One facet of Peake’s performance that went almost unacknowledged in the press, however, was the decision to play Hamlet as trans. (There was a link to trans awareness resources on the production page, and a rather ill-conceived blurb on the Royal Exchange website answered the question “Is Hamlet a man or a woman in this production?” with “The answer is, both! Maxine is playing Hamlet as a woman that ‘presents’ as a man.”)

This is a departure from convention worth discussing and repeating – and one that can teach us something new about the original text. Does not Claudius’s dismissal, “Tis unmanly grief,” sting more sharply when it is used to invalidate his stepson’s identity? The character’s own meditations on masculinity and wry comparisons between himself and Hercules are thrown into stark relief when these are expectations he has had to contend with so directly throughout his life. We begin to understand him not as the “archetype of masculinity” he has become, but as a young man grappling with his perceived failure to conform to its standards.

With last term’s BT lineup including Binding and Cashiered, each an authentic, important exploration of trans issues both past and present, and the Michaelmas sell-out show pussyfooting now being redevised for performance in the OUDS National Tour, it seems Oxford drama is asking the right questions about identity – a challenge to the status quo that has been happily well-received. I personally hope this trend persists for a long time to come.

University officially outlines pro-EU position

Daniel Kodsi
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University officially outlines pro-EU position

Oxford University released a statement Friday morning announcing the University Council’s position on the UK’s membership of the European Union. Though the University has previously indicated support for the UK retaining its membership, this marks its first official declaration.

The statement reads, “As a world-leading University, Oxford has for many years carried out research on the place of Europe in British public life (through the work of several of its academic departments and institutes such as its European Studies Centre). The University welcomes the opportunity to participate in the current debate on the EU Referendum through that research.

“Membership of the EU currently benefits the University in a number of ways. The mobility that EU membership affords, which enables staff and students from across the EU to come to Oxford, and Oxford staff and students to work and study in Europe, is central to our Strategic Plan. This contains at its heart the exchange of ideas that strengthens our ability to contribute to society and to the national and local economy, and provides intellectual benefit in partner universities and research institutes. The EU facilitates our participation in pan-European research collaborations; enables us to contribute to the development of EU research policy to the benefit of the UK as a whole; and provides us with access to EU research funding (of some £66m in 2014/15). All this serves our vision of the University of Oxford as a global hub for intellectual engagement.

“While recognising that individual members of the University will hold different views on the Referendum, and while encouraging open debate on the issue, the University’s Council wishes to affirm the value that the UK’s membership of the EU provides to the University.”

The “Brexit” debate has proved divisive at both national level, revealing rifts within the governing Conservative Party, and at Oxford, where both an Oxford Students for Europe (OSFE) and an Oxford Students for Britain (OSFB) group have been created.

But sentiment is not as divided at Oxford as it is in Britain. In a survey conducted during Hilary, Cherwell found that 80 per cent of students wished to remain while only 13 per cent wished to exit the EU.

OSFE and OSFB have been contacted for comment.

Obituary: Prince 1958-2016

Daniel Curtis
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Obituary: Prince 1958-2016

“Despite everything, no one can dictate who you are to other people.”

That was one of Prince’s most powerful quotes – and despite everything, no-one can quite describe what he signified for others. A powerful guitarist. A provocative songwriter. An indomitable rebel. Mere nouns and adjectives fall short.

Instead, celebrate his ability to be a genuine showstopper, someone who could steal the camera lens away from countless stars to unleash untameable vocals, or emotive solos. Someone who played most of the instruments on all of his records through a frankly ridiculous back-catalogue, crowned by his early 70s and 80s run of LPs which essentially brought funk to the masses and made him a veritable pop-culture icon.

Yet despite that, Prince was quietly a writer of some of the famous pop songs of the century under humble, nondescript pseudonyms. ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’, ‘Manic Monday’, ‘I Feel For You’ and countless others all bear Prince’s signature dichotomy of romance and seduction.

Celebrate his steadfast desire to be untrammelled by the music industry, leaving behind the name of his birth and the same name which made him famous, while refusing to let the value and worth of music be degraded by modern streaming means which give little reward to the artist.

As ever, Prince himself put it best: “A strong spirit transcends rules.”

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