Finland 0-7 England+Italy

One of the biggest differences between London and Helsinki was one which also separates Milan and Helsinki: dress. I don't know whether it has something to do with Helsinki residing in such a cold climate that we must emphasize functionality of clothes or if it's just because we Finns have grown in a forest, but it seems that the Italians and the Brits outdress us by, well, a lot.

There's an old saying which states that you are able to identify a Finnish business man at the airport by his shoes. And that's not a complement. This has been attributed to the horrid weather in Finland, which eats through all types of shoes in a matter of months. But it does not explain how it is possible that Finns cannot wear suits that fit well. The suit, to many Finnish men, is some horrid apparatus, which they feel has been devised only to restrict and constrain. The most typical Finnish suit is one which resembles a box. I do not wish to describe it in more detail, as I'm sure that you will already have an idea what wearing a box might look like. Tapering is entirely unheard of and the armholes are cut so large that movement is just horrid. So no wonder Finns fear suits.

Brits and Italians, on the other hand, have a long history with everything related to style. Brits through their class hierarchies and dress codes. Italians, on the other hand, need nothing more than sprezzatura and they're able to always come out on top and not even break a sweat. But for Finns, mastering even a single knot to tie the feared tie with seems to be beyond all hope.

Helsinki does, however, have some fashionable people. Or at least I would imagine so. But fashion is again something that I do not want to know anything about, which means that from my perspective the Finnish society consists of people who think that wearing a shell suit in town is acceptable and then people who think that it's cool to dress like a member of the opposite sex (to be slightly provocative, as I have no idea about the rationale or reasoning behind the fads of the fashion crowd). We are lacking the group of people who master the art of style. I'm not necessarily even referring to the dandies, but maybe a slightly towned down version of them. It shouldn't be so difficult, but apparently it is. Unfortunately.