Finnish fashion house Voglia renewed its brand
Pictured is Voglia's new design team and CEO. On the left is designer and AD Salla-Maaria Syvänen, in the middle is Voglia Oy's CEO Katriina Virtanen and on the right is chief designer Paula Polkumaa. Photo by Federico Cabrera.
Voglia's generational change last year made Katriina Virtanen, who previously worked in the company's marketing, the CEO, who quickly began to shape the brand's strategy. The new Voglia offers responsible alternatives for the individual consumer; 81% of the brand's clothes are produced in its own factories in Estonia. An important part of the fashion house, founded in 1983, has always been strong tailoring skills, which it intends to maintain in the future. The reform is therefore not only a development for Voglia, but also a return to its roots.
The brand's fresh design combines classicism with softness, sustainable materials and attractive silhouettes without forgetting functionality. The goal is to reach more people than before, in addition to the established customer base, who are unfamiliar with the brand.
“Our aim with our updated look is not only to attract new domestic customers but also to target international markets,” says CEO Virtanen. Already in the fall of 2019, he hired two new designers: Paula Polkumaan and Salla-Maaria Syvänen.
Polkumaa's background as a fashion designer is international. She worked for a long time in Germany and the UK, until she longed for peace and stability, and ended up back in Finland in the early 2010s. Paula has been designing clothes for twenty years. When she saw Voglia's job advertisement, Polkumaa knew this was the job for her. The brand's values were right on target, and Paula had known the brand since childhood.
“I vividly remember Voglia's clothes from my mother's wardrobe,” she says with a smile.
Now working as the head designer of the same company feels like destiny - Polkumaa is proud to be part of the new era of the traditional Finnish fashion house.
Syvänen, who was chosen as Paula's partner, has been working as a designer for about ten years. He designs not only clothes for Voglia, but also their patterns and prints. Despite her extensive training in the field, Salla-Maaria thought for a long time that she did not want to work for the fashion industry due to its questionable practices, but Voglia's focus on responsibility made her change her mind. The company's operations and goals fit Syvänen's values. In addition, she feels a personal attachment to Voglia, as the fashion house's headquarters in Lammi is also her birthplace.
“Working at Voglia feels like coming home,” he says with satisfaction.
The global pandemic has inevitably brought new challenges to both the fashion house's basic processes and growth. The coronavirus forced us to adapt our plans already in the spring, but the challenges of the early part of the year and the ongoing uncertainty continue to affect business operations.
"The renewal of the brand and collection is already a big change for the company. The surprising state of emergency definitely added a strong spice to the matter, which has affected our work, for example, in terms of challenges with the availability of materials. We have also reacted to the situation by adjusting our selection and focusing more than intended on casual products that are also suitable for staying at home," says Chief Designer Polkumaa.
In addition to its online store, Voglia still has eight of its own stores in Finland and a total of 36 employees.
"The effects of the coronavirus are significant and long-lasting, but I believe that good things will also come out of the pandemic. Although clothing brands are having a hard time, questioning our consumption habits is important on both an individual and societal level. Our goal is to be a responsible brand and a trendsetter in cultural change," says Katriina Virtanen.
More information:
Katriina Virtanen - CEO - katriina.virtanen@voglia.fi
Salla-Maaria Syvänen - Designer & AD - salla-maaria.syvanen@voglia.fi