Shopping

The Punavuori district is an Eldorado for all us music lovers who still want to buy our music as real records, CD:s, vinyls, new, second hand etc. In Viiskulma (Five Corners) there is a cluster of 5-7 record shops within just a few meters from each other. Each shop has its own distinct profile, and what’s nice about them is, that they don’t consider each other as rivals but colleagues. If one of them doesn’t have the record you’re looking for, they tell you which one of the others might have it. So if you find one of these shops, you know you don’t have to walk far to find the rest of them.

In the corner there is one of the oldest record shops in Helsinki, Digelius Music with world music and jazz, even classical. Both new and used CD:s and vinyls.

And just around the corner from here you’ll find Eronen with a nice selection of somewhat hotter sounds like Jamaican, Cuban, African, salsa, soul, reggae etc.

You might also want to visit Lifesaver Shop and browse their selection of soul, jazz, funk, house, disco, hip hop, electro…

And – if you are looking for a good record player, visit A.H. Records, just two steps from Popparienkeli. They also have a nice selection of old records in vinyl.

This little cute shop sells all the things cool from a few Finnish designers. Antti Asplund, one of the most talented Finnish clothing designers sells his clothes in here. His clothes are unique and the man himself is as well: he adores hats, wigs and pirates.

You can find seriously stunning and bohemian necklaces and earring designed by Youth vs. Future in the shop. The Youth vs. Future brand was founded in Helsinki in 2006 by jewellery designers Laura Vartio and Janni Hyvärinen.

The story behind the pink feather-jewellery: A sudden tragedy took place in Helsinki Zoo Korkeasaari. All 16 flamingos were found dead after a fox found his way to their haw and executed the birds. The designers found this story meaningful in many ways, and invented the pink feathers and have written a short story in honor of the flamingos.

Personally I love the shop because it is small, cosy and luxurious at the same time. I have bought few too many feathers as it is…

Anton & Anton (A&A) is a small food store, where you will find FRESH vegetables, ORGANIC spices and LOCAL food. The fresh stuff is not in plastic and several things are from the farms near to Helsinki. The cheese, bread, meat and fish counters are well worth mentioning.

The customer service is excellent. This is a food store from the past. You feel welcome and the food is pure and as organic as possible. The floor is very cute with the black and white tiles too. (Clearly I have a fixation with cute floors, because I mentioned the floor in Green Dress article as well).

To be honest, I did not mean to praise the place this much and wanted to be critical about it, but I guess it is impossible. So I just say what it is: a perfect little food store where you can find pretty much all you need for cooking and living a healthy life. In these times when the big super markets leave little to no room for the little shops like these it is great to see new little shops opening.

The green Dress has been selling vintage and ethnic clothes & accessories for few years now in Helsinki. Recently they moved to a bigger premise at Erottaja street.

The vintage they sell is rather expensive, but the pieces are unique. I fell in love with a teeny tiny burble Chanel pursue, which – sadly -I can’t afford at the moment, due to the scary number on the price tag. Not everything is expensive at Greendress though: an old necklace was 40 euros and silver earrings were just 10 euros/pair, so I guess no matter what your price-limit is, you will find something nice. The jewelry materials are vintage, dead stock and re-purposed or mixed of all of those.

A good example of their ethnic side are the Afghan Hands -products. Afghan Hands is an organization that supports the role of Afghan women, their employment and education by selling scarves and shawls made by them. The products are made and embroidered in the organizations headquarters in Kabul.

In addition to selling clothes and accessories they have a small juice bar/cafe in the store. You can buy fruit smoothies and organic coffee during your shopping marathon. The Vitamin Water-products and organic juices are good addition, so now the whole store concept is even more ethnic.

The shop is adorable: it has red-white striped floor and colorful clothes and items, so I’m sure even just visiting it will make you happier.

Lumi Accessories was established exactly 10 years ago by two designers: a Finnish lady and a French gentleman. They design bags and other accessories which are well-known all over the globe. They have stores in New York, Paris and Helsinki, of course. Their shop is in Punavuori district.

The Lumi on 14 (In Punavuori) is a concept store where they sell Lumi products but also other, Finnish and foreign, brand’s high quality accessories. The shop is a very cool place with lots of nice small items which are fun to look at and you should visit it even if you are not going to buy anything.

The bags are quite expensive, but they are made of lasting materials. There is something very Finnish about their design, although they have the sense of glamour of Paris and coolness of New York (where the designers live).

An interesting detail: The name of the brand, Lumi, means snow. It was in Millenium when the designer duo was in snowy Finland and they found a felt factory in the middle of the white country.