Fashion Dreams or Fashion Business. Helsinki as an Emerging Fashion Scene.

The intention of this paper is to explore the notion of fashion network in the emerging Finnish fashion scene. In its recent growth through international recognitions on younger designers, the dilemma of local fashion actors is observed to position between artistic and commercial sides of fashion. Although the artistic side has been celebrated, the business of fashion requires the commercial side to be strengthened in order to scale up for entering broader foreign markets. To demonstrate this development, four stages of local conditions in the city of Helsinki are explored while centering the narrative on the emergence of local initiatives, namely Pre-Helsinki, Helsinki-New and Fashion-In-Helsinki. Each initiative forms its own fashion network corresponding to its objective, including the increasing international visibility of young fashion designers or more commercial fashion companies, as well as sales. This demonstration entails the importance of balancing between the artistic and commercial sides for the business of fashion. Due to difficulty of embracing both sides, this paper concludes with a strong emphasis on acquiring collaborative skills for fashion designers to make business out of their fashion dreams.