COOCOS dsgn
COOCOS dsgn was founded out of passion and long-term love for clothes, colors, and fabrics. How they together create a visual entirety, how they feel on and what they express about the people wearing them or what the people want to express themselves with their clothes. Beautiful clothes are interesting and multithreaded matter.
Coocos accents its own style however noticing the contemporary fashion trends. In pattern drafting, it is important to make the garment to fit right and to pay attention to the natural flow of each fabric. It is important the clothes are constructed well, we appreciate the old dressmaking skills and beautifully cuts and seams. It is also important to look and feel good in clothes. We love to create little details to give the garment an extra twist. The world around us with its various phenomenon is the source of inspiration to Coocos as well as the history with its gorgeous garments from the old days.
I studied fashion design in Boston, USA. I also got my first job training in the fashion field over there. Studying abroad in another continental was very international, there were students from many different parts of the world which made it not only exotic but also very inspiring. It was exciting to create fashion besides for example a student from Chile whose ideas of aesthetics were much more colourful and plentiful than mine, the ones from the nordic roots inherited: more is less. We learned a lot from each other and I believe the culturally rich environment left something in my creative work.
When I returned to Finland at the end of the ’80s there were sad times going on in the fashion industry. Many famous local fashion houses went bankrupt, so the potential employers disappeared. I worked as a freelancer until I accidentally drifted to the media field to get a better economical position. I made a long career in media in sales and in marketing and in their management. Even in those years, I followed fashion intensively and the love of clothes did stay on.
To create my own collection was of course the fulfillment of my wish. The collection was created by an Estonian studio, whose skill, flexibility, and preciseness I still appreciate. The fact the clothes are made nearby is important to me. This way I act responsibly and support ethicalness and sustainability. I know the production process from my sketching board to the ready-made garment. To avoid making garment pieces or sizes in vain in the future we function more and more based on orders. If you like some of our cloth and you can not find a size, please order, we will make it for you!
Merja Salonen
Fashion designer and founder of Coocos