Shopping guide for Finland: Designer shopping in Helsinki

Updated September 13 2016 - 9:13am, first published 8:54am
Marimekko fashion.
Marimekko fashion.
Design museum.
Design museum.
Littala glasswear.
Littala glasswear.

Walk through Helsinki and you're surrounded by austere beauty. It has cold blue skies scudded with clouds, luminous white buildings, Gotham-like train station flanked by giant granite statues and Art Nouveau facades along elegant boulevards. But it's when you peer into shop windows that you see minimalist Nordic cool at its best. Bright red poppies bloom on Marimekko textiles, Iittala glassware gleams, simple plywood becomes a work of art under furniture-maker Jouko Kärkkäinen. Back in 1956, a leaf-shaped plywood tray by Finnish designer Tapio Wirkkala was declared the world's most beautiful object.

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