It’s gloomy and wet in Helsinki. Fashion designer Anna Ruohonen has spent the Christmas season in Finland and is now sitting in a café with a steaming hot café latte in front of her. She is soon travelling back to Paris – and back to work. Her year-long maternity leave is drawing to close and her collection is awaiting new decisions to be made.

Despite the maternity leave, Anna Ruohonen’s business hasn’t completely taken a break in the past year. Her latest collection was presented in a showroom during the Paris Fashion Week in October. The collection was waiting to be finished at her enchanting workroom in Paris when we last met. Today, she is working in a new workroom nearer her home.

Conceptuality – industriality – business

Anna Ruohonen, 40, started her designer career at the end of the 1990’s. She specialized in men’s wear and experienced several occasions which opened new doors and points of view.
Paris-based Ruohonen studied fashion design at the University of Art and Design Helsinki and in design schools in Amsterdam and Utrecht, the Netherlands, at the turn and the beginning of the 1990’s.

Where the University of Art and Design Helsinki was very practical, the schools in the Netherlands were artistic and conceptual. The final module in Paris was a lesson of fashion business.

“Business-orientation in Paris was real shock therapy for artistic students!” laughs Anna Ruohonen. ”My final work was about different types of men and the collection included materials such as feathers and rubber. I didn’t think my collection was commercial at all, but the teachers questioned my thoughts. ’Where are you going to sell your collection?’ asked they. ’Why aren’t you selling it?’ they said when I told them that my collection wasn’t commercial.”

”At that moment the doors opened in my mind – the concept of commercialism is inconceivably large, it’s only a matter of who are you selling to and how!” she continues with a laugh and a swing of her blond, curly hair

Martin Margiela: A garment is a design product

Anna Ruohonen worked several years for Maison Martin Margiela before establishing her own collection. “I realized that fashion business can also be intellectual when I was working at the Margiela showroom. Margiela approached garments through design, art and conceptual thinking. Great designers don’t follow the fashion; they have a concept of their own, apart from commercial phenomena and trends.”

”A designer can create his own system and carry his ideology out. He doesn’t need to be tied to trends and seasons. The whole scale between fashion and design can be used.”

For example, Martin Margiela never renewed the whole collection every season, but left some of the favourite pieces of the past seasons to the collection – until he got bore to them. Margiela’s inheritance can also be seen in Anna Ruohonen’s own collection, which includes garments for men and women and a collection Black Classics, which consists almost completely of unchanging classic pieces and favourites of the clients and the designer.

Menswear to women

The first collection of Anna Ruohonen – a menswear collection made of linen – was published in 1999, in connection with a successful design competition Masters of Linen. Menswear had been Ruohonen’s specialty since she was a design student.

“Men’s clothing is interesting because of the boundaries of masculinity”, she says. “What are those boundaries for? Who creates them – women or men themselves? What is masculinity? Why are some garments considered masculine and some aren’t? Menswear is also technically interesting and classic tailor’s solutions are enchanting” ponders Ruohonen.

”Comfort aspect is also always there in men’s wear – not a single man would wear similar heels that women do because heels are not comfortable. This also gives materials a big role in men’s garments.”

“I rejected creating my own women’s line for a long time, but I had to give up under commercial pressure. My Japanese clients used buy smaller and smaller sizes and I finally understood that the garments were bought for their female clients” she says. “This caused me to design women’s collection called Feminine Aspects, which consisted kind of men’s garments for women. Later I established a separate collection for women.”

Time to Grow

Today, half of Anna Ruohonen’ White Label collection consists of menswear and half of women’s wear. The collection is produced in France and is mainly sold in France, Japan and Finland.

There is something very Finnish in Ruohonen’s minimalist and timeless collection. However, she says that there are also influences from Paris. Also her latest collection, launched in the autumn 2007 and made in co-operation with textile designer Johanna Gullichsen, can be described with the same adjectives.

The company of Anna Ruohonen is small and growing is vital. Sales in Japan is going well but the collection should have more retailers in Europe. Anna Ruohonen says that she dreams of more time for actual designing and wishes that she could share the duties of the company with other professionals. Where to go now? She has a turning point in hand, once again.

• MA in Fashion Design
• Fashion design studies at the University of Art and Design Helsinki, Institut Francais de la Mode in Paris, Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Utrecht and Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam
• Worked for Maison Maison Margiela, for example
• Taught menswear design at the EVTEK Institute of Design in Finland
• Designed collections for Aarikka, for example
• Own collection: Anna Ruohonen for men and women; Black Classics, Anna Ruohonen Johanna Gullichsen, launched in the autumn 2007