Dusty was a character of the cult TV series Dallas. He was meant to run away with Sue Ellen, the wife of the mighty JR Ewing. Dusty was a masculine man with a masculine name, but the name may also mean much more. It may indicate to an English soul singer Dusty Springfield – or the menswear label Dusty, designed by fashion designer Marjut Uotila.

“Dusty is a collection for men who are interested in expressing themselves with clothes” says Uotila, 29. “It’s important that a user likes something specific in a garment he or she wears – there has to be that little something that makes the user grab the garment in the first place.”

Invited to Florence

Dusty was invited to the New Beat(s) area of menswear fair Pitti Immagine Uomo in Florence, Italy. New Beat(s) is the place to see young, up-coming menswear collections. The area presented altogether 12 collections from around the world in January 2008. Dusty was the first Finnish collection to be invited.

“I was showing my collection in a showroom in Paris last summer. People from Pitti Uomo came to see the collection and sent me an invitation in the autumn” tells Uotila. “It was good that none of them had any idea about Finnish garments. The collection just was very different from those they had seen in the menswear market.”

In all, Pitti Uomo gathered 34.000 visitors to rainy Florence. “The fair went excellently. Many Italian fashion magazines came to interview me and wrote stories about the collection. Central European buyers also visited the fair in Florence, even though they passed Paris” the designer continues.

“Dusty is currently sold in Finland, but also in Japan and Australia. I’m also negotiating with exporting the collection to German-speaking countries.”

Financing the collection with freelance jobs

Marjut Uotila graduated from the Lahti Institute of Design in 2002. Dusty was born the same year, but its roots are in Paris, where Uotila took some of her studies. “I saw the kind of menswear in the stores that I could have never believed to see in Finland and I became interested in menswear design.”

“I only designed much decorated women’s wear in Paris. After that I decide to concentrate on menswear in my final work, which turned out to be very good. The collection was given plenty of positive feedback” Uotila reminisces.

“I went to the New Business Centre of my school after graduating. There we made my business plan ready to be carried out. Carrying out the plan would have required two million euros – this wasn’t possible, so I had to finance my collection by doing freelance jobs” Uotila grins.

“I designed private label collections for supermarkets, for example, for years. This way I learned to understand the value of my own collection – what I want to do with it and how. My collection is made with design in mind, nothing else.”

“I stopped doing freelance jobs last summer – at least for now. I thought that I have to invest in Dusty, otherwise it would never really go further” says the designer. “I put a time limit of five years in my business plan – if nothing happens during that time, it’s not worth doing anymore. Five years has passed now and I have decided to put my everything to the collection.”

Unique details

”Although I have done my collection bit by bit, I have noticed the doing to become easier. Now it’s quite easy for me to carry out my vision. That was also one of the reasons my collection was so warmly welcomed in Florence. Fashion editors, for example, were very interested in Dusty. It means a lot to me to hear from an editor of Collezioni that my collection is looking new and fresh.”

The whole Dusty collection is produced in Lahti, Finland. The collection for the forthcoming autumn and winter consists of many hand-made details. Marjut Uotila says that that’s the way she prefers to keep the collection. It should look like it’s impossible to make industrially.

The new collection doesn’t include any prints, but there are plenty of other ways the patterns have been made – crocheted and stitched to the garment, for example. The garments have certain three-dimensional feeling even though the garments would have black patterns in black fabric.

Marjut Uotila has hands full of Dusty right now. She says that she would be happy if she was able to make the collection in the future, as well. “My friend once asked me whether I am going to design for young men when I am a middle-aged woman. Fortunately, designing does not depend on age, but attitude, courage and style!” she laughs.