Hopeless Fluevog Day 2016

Dear John,

Ok, we give up. It's International Fluevog Day, but still no Fluevog shop in Helsinki – in spite of our sincere, even desperate pleads.

Seems like it's time to go bare foot. Ish. 

Even in public. I don't care anymore. Nothing really matters.

Woollen socks of desperation

Our beloved John, as you must understand, appearances like these won't help us with our professional careers. Or even in our personal lives. Year next to come with feet like this (yes, our winters are as bad as yours) won't be easy. We can see divorces and abandoned children ahead of us. And worst of all, Mia will live as a spinster for one more year.

In situations like this we would love to count on  toour shoes. But since there is no change with "Fluevog meets Finlad" project, we have no idea what to do. Who to turn to? It seems so unfair. Canada still has it all. And Trudeau, too. Also, Mia has dentist's appointment tomorrow. And Satu has a board meeting (shoeless one). Not fair.

Is there something we can do? Help us to help you. We know all the best locations for shoe shops (yes they are all right besides to our offices), Finland even knows a meaning of a "pop-up store" by now. And also there are few rather good department stores right in the centre. Their shoe selections would also really need your help. We could send letters of recommendation to them (or not if you wish so)!

Please John, let the third time be a charm, and save our soles!

With love and desperation from Finland,
Satu & Mia

Flashing for Fluevog

Dear John, again

Despite our heart breaking appeal last year, there still is no Fluevog store in Finland. We are ready for desperate measures.

To finally get some international attention for our cause, we decided to resort to the traditional Finnish way of demonstration: viuhahdus. Flashing, that is. We chose the venue according to the amount of tourists, in the hope of getting us heard globally. The natural choice was, of course, the Senate Square, where all the tourists go. There's also a nice cafe.

So, clothes off (except for shoes, of course), bold and quick pose and cheese said. Luckily, we have a principle of showing people only knees and below in the blog, so here's what you get:

The main tourist attraction of Helsinki

To our disappointment, there were no Canadians in sight. We did meet some US citizens, who immediately felt our desperation. They were so sorry they didn't have any extra Vogs with them to continue the legacy of the good old Marshall plan. They gave us some cookies, though.

Adding insult to injury, we've just heard that Los Angeles gets another Fluevog store. The second one. And exclusive Kendras, too. On what scale is this fair? How is LA better than HEL? Other than climate, cuisine, friendliness, income, fashion awareness and customer flow, that is. 

Finland is left alone, again. Just like during the Winter War and Middle Ages. Also, we have this new government coming up, which will certainly ban all the fun, including shoes. And Russia, too. North Korea, anyone?

Don't let it happen to us.

We do appreciate the last year's gesture of naming a Wearever shoe "Kiitos" and hereby promise to do a viuhahdus in Kiitos shoes, as soon as we get a store to Helsinki. Or, never to be seen naked in public again, it's up to you.

In hopes of a better future

Mia and Satu

Declaration of the International Fluevog Day

Dear John,

With the ever so warmest hearts we salute you from Helsinki, Finland!

In Finland, we do not have much. We do have one Monty Python song, that's true. And, of course, Conan O'Brien has made fun of our previous president. But that helps only so far.

Shoe wise, Finland is an undeveloped country. We do have Minna Parikka, luckily, but that's not enough for a whole life. The inhabitants are void of proper shoes and, unfortunately, not so many of us even realise the horrible circumstances we live in. We are trying to celebrate the International Fluevog Day, but it's a bit difficult since we are the only ones in sight with proper shoes.

Even the architecture in Finland is mostly boring

We tried to promote the Vog Day, but unfortunately none of our three friends cared that much. Even Mia's mother was disinterested. In a meeting which Mia attended no one even recognized the brand and Mia lost her little remaining credibility by shouting out the shock of people's indifference. The graphic designer of Satu's office didn't care. Satu's husband couldn't care less. Even Mia's imaginary boyfriend didn't give a shit.

This country is in a state of Unshoe. We can't make it on our own; we are in urgent need of international development aid.

It's not that we haven't tried our best ourselves. We are using all the possible means to get us the Vogs we need so badly. We have even started up a Facebook shoe fleamarket in hope of getting our hands on whatever Vogs there are in Finland. So far, there has been only one pair, which almost got us in a fight over them. On better days we can afford ordering from the mother load Vog site, on poorer we are happy with Fluemarket and what it has to offer. Luckily, there's Raspberry Heels in Poland.  But, all these come with an inherent fail: It takes too much time to get the shoes. Sometimes one just needs a quick fix.

Finland already has a strong connection with Canada: ice hockey, forests and Finnish immigrants (we're quite sure they left Finland for better shoes). Satu knows two Canadian persons, and Mia has seen a picture of one. The bond between our countries is strong as steel.

As you can see, life in Finland isn't easy. It seems really unfair to suffer constantly when you guys have more than enough of what we need so desperately. For the sake of the brother- and sisterhood of our countries, we beg for your help in our struggle for saving this society from inevitable doom in form of ugly shoes. We need Fluevogs. Not like the oranges after the war, an accidental miracle, but on a daily basis. We need to educate people on civilized shoe use. We can't keep wearing boring shoes, like animals. We don't want to remain the styleless shoe nation we are today!

We need our very own Fluevog store! As a first aid, a proper retailer would be a start.

Please read this declaration as a message in a bottle from deserted shoeless island and Save Our Soles!

With love and desperation,

Satu and Mia

Kummat kengät "edustaa" Venetsian Biennalessa

Venetsian Biennalen tärkein anti, eli kutsuvieraiden kengät, oli tänä vuonna valitettavan mitäänsanomaton. Mielenkiintoisia asuja kyllä näkyi, mutta edes niiden kantajat eivät olleet kiinnittäneet asiaankuuluvaa huomiota jalkineittensa loistokkuuteen.

Poikkeuksia onneksi löytyi ja hienoin niistä oli tämä säihkyvä pari.

Niiden omistajaksi osoittautui Chicks on Speed -yhtyeen Melissa Logan, siis bändin, jonka jopa minä kaikessa musiikkitietämättömyydessäni tunnistan. On muuten yksi parhaista bändinnimistä ikinä. Luonnollinen reaktioni tilanteessa oli toki töksäyttää että hei sähän oot siis niinQ julkkis ja sitten alkaa dissata Turkua. Kerroin myös koko Suomen käyttävän Prozacia.

Kengät olivat saapuneet paikalle Australian (parin toiston jälkeen tajusin, että se on eri asia kuin Austria) paviljongin avajaisiin, jossa Chicks on Speed esiintyi. Kengät ovat pohjimmiltaan Bruno Maglin, mutta Melissan ja Alex Murray-Leslien raskaalla kädellä tuunaamat - itse suunnitellut esiintymisasut ovat muutenkin tämän multitaidebändiprojektin (yksi) tunnusmerkki.

Ja erittäin hyvä niin!


Rough translation for the international Chick on Speed -googlers:

Kummat kengät "representing" in the Venice Biennale

The most important issue of Venice Biennale, the shoes or the guests of invitation, was unfortunatley lame this year. There were a plethora of interesting outfits, but even the carriers of most eccentric clothing hadn't paid attention to the splendour of their footwear.

Luckily, there were some exceptions and the fanciest one was this pair of shoes.

[pic, see above] 

The owner of this lovely pair proved to be Melissa Logan from Chicks on Speed, a band even I, despite my total unawareness of the music business, recognize. That's, by the way, one of the best ever band names I know. My natural reacion was, of course, to babble like OMG ya kind of famous, roooight? and start dissing the Finnish city of Turku. I also let Melissa know that whole Finland is on Prozac.

These shoes have arrived to Venice for the opening of the Australian (after a couple of reminders I realised it's not Austria) pavillion's opening party, where Chicks on Speed performed. Originally, the shoes are designed by Bruno Magli, but Melissa and Alex Murray-Leslie have altered them with no mercy themselves - self designed performing costumes being one of the trademarks of this multi art band project.

And we're quite happy about that!