Love Revolution

There’s a revolution happening at 238 Mulberry St. in New York.

Paola Suhonen, the creator of Scandinavian fashion label IVANAhelsinki, has opened a pop-up shop that not only serves as a temporary home to her clothing collection in New York, but as a factory for artists, much like Andy Warhol’s legendary studio in the 1960s.

Each night after the doors close and the lights go out for the general public, musicians, painters, photographers, writers, performers, and filmmakers gather at the shop to create and share their art while holding panel discussions on love. Suhonen wanted to create a communal movement where people could participate in sharing love and beauty, while surrounded by a constant influx of new creativity.

Already a superstar in her native Finland, and now armed with rave reviews about her recent debut at Paris Fashion Week, Suhonen decided it was time to take on the American market, which she felt needed a throwback to the spirit of the 1960s, a sentiment very much present in her clothing collection and her store.

Each collection expresses a visual language through Suhonen’s now iconic hand-designed prints. The prints are based on a story that is made into a film, presented with the collection.

For this season’s look, the inspiration behind the collection is a circus girl who lost her troop. The designer says that she just kind of “fell into fashion” and as explained on her website, started IVANAhelsinki as: “my own personal art project, but now it’s a way of life. I could easily spend my life as a gypsy or a vagabond; love stories, road trips, strong living…but it’s okay too, to make cute cotton and woolen dresses for charismatic drummer girls and girl women with beautiful souls. They are the girls who love moonlit fields, pirates, dark vast forests, a Champagne state of drunkenness, fragile butterflies, lullabies, and guardian angels…”

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A family-owned grassroots company founded by Paola and her Sister Pirjo, IVANAhelsinki evokes the designer’s memories of white arctic summer nights, the eerie isolation of Nordic winters, and other legends of her Finnish childhood. This theme is carried out at the pop-up store where Paola has created a Nordic-driven aesthetic, complete with iconic Scandinavian furnishings and vintage Finnish scenery prints.

A modern-day Renaissance woman, Paola’s artistic vision just keeps expanding. Her passion and drive for fashion and romantic lifestyle has led her to her latest gig as editor-in-chief of Love Contemporary, a sizzling new print magazine and online store featuring luxurious pleasure toys that are Duchampian in appearance. The toys resemble objets d’art.

The merchandise is also available at the pop up store, adding to the theme of playfulness, joy, love and beauty.  Care to join the revolution and break new ground on ideas of love and art with New York’s hippest and most avant-garde? Stop by the IVANAhelsinki pop-up shop at 238 Mulberry St. A few of the after-hours happenings in the store that are not to be missed this week are:

• Sunday 3/7/10: Finnish Art Factory Night, a fair of artists
• Monday 3/8/10: “The Scents of Aphrodite,” make love potions with renowned herbalist Katinka Locascio
• Wednesday 3/10/10: Singer Alexa Wilding presents “You Who Never Arrived” artists, poets, filmmakers and musicians reflect on lost innocent love and open mic
• Friday 3/12/10: Graffiti Galore hosted by Rubin and Cope2

On Wednesday, March 17, the pop-up store will give its final bow by hosting a closing sale all day and into the night. Stores in New York come and go, but the IVANAhelsinki pop-up shop will never be forgotten.