I have been in Scandinavia the past few weeks thanks to Liisa Jokinen and Sampo Karjalainen of the wonderful blog Hel Looks. They invited me to Helsinki to be part of the Hel Looks Weekend festival where I presented my photos along with nine other fantastic creatives. We were all given the choice to pick 20 slides and had 20 seconds to discuss each one. I had a grand time talking about the wonderful Advanced Style ladies and met so many great people. I am working hard on gathering material for my book and will be back in New York on Wednesday.

A blurry shot of my PechaKucha Presentation

I have been having the best time in Scandinavia shooting Advanced Style and enjoying the sights. I arrived in Copenhagen this morning and I’ll be here until Wednesday morning looking for great style. The lady above, like so many of the women I talk to, is wearing an outfit that she has had for many years.She had it made by her favorite dress maker and it still looks good after all these years.

Ulla told me what her 90 year old dress maker shared with her a few years back,”There are two kinds of women, ones with imagination and ones with no imagination. The ones with no imagination can’t imagine how clothes will look before they are made and so they should buy from the racks, but those with imagination who can see what they will look like should have things made.” Ulla told me that she knows its difficult and expensive to have clothes custom made today, but she said we can still wear our clothes with imagination.

I have been in Stockholm the past few days with limited access to internet and am now at the airport on my way to Helsinki. When I asked the woman above for a photo, she asked why I wouldn’t want to take a picture of someone beautiful,someone younger, why her? I explained that I don’t think of beauty in terms of age and that she was in fact very beautiful.She was hesitant,but in the end she thanked me with a smile on her face.