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Scan Magazine | Design | LFW & LDF

ideas,” says Eilola, adding: “I also do bespoke designs and particularly Asian and Japanese buyers are big fans of my clothes.”

niemi, adding: “I will also be providing catering this November for , a Nordic music festival in London.” Standing out from the masses

Dine and design, and bee-shaped cakes The annual London Design Festival (13-21 September this year) promotes London as the design capital of the world. The programme ranges from major international exhibitions to receptions, as well as private viewings and parties scattered all over the city. This year, two Finnish creative talents, chef Antto Melasniemi and designer Klaus Haapaniemi, made it into the festival’s guide of 50 highlights. Scan Magazine tasted some of the celebrated chef’s creations for his collaboration with design venture Wrong for HAY, a project marrying Danish design company HAY with British designer Sebastian Wrong. The ‘dine and design’ event was held at Wrong for HAY’s new showroom near St. James’s Park, where their new furniture was unveiled alongside five-course dinners incorporating a contemporary Finnish menu created by Melasniemi. “The atmosphere is fantastic and the evening feels like an intimate dinner party. The cuisine is not all typically Finnish. It is exciting how design and food have been merged,” said Ellaveera Hyvönen, one of the guests at the dinner. The meal started with rye bread, accompanied by three types of chef’s butters featuring smoked fish, chicken liver and crabapple, followed by a traditional fish soup with Karelian pastry. “My cuisine is influenced by Finnish foods, but I also get inspiration from Slavic countries and Russia. For this menu, I used mostly local ingredients that are in season now,” Melasniemi explains. One of the biggest surprises was a liquorice crème brûlée. The drinks menu included chef’s own gin drink, forage gin, a piney liquor. “I have been developing this forest-blend gin, which will be launching in Finland. I worked on the label with my designer friend, Klaus Haapaniemi,” reveals Melas-

Scan Magazine also visited the Finnish Ambassador’s residence in Kensington Gardens, where the brand Klaus Haapaniemi unveiled its upholstered wood sofas, designed in collaboration with the Finnish furniture brand, Nikari, as part of London Design Festival. Haapaniemi led visitors into the main living room area, which was decorated with his new expanded collection: beautiful brass-andwalnut pendant lights, hand-printed Japanese ceramics, and stylish pyjamas. Still, the bee-shaped chocolate cakes were the big surprise of the event. “To celebrate the launch, we created these bee-shaped cakes together with Melasniemi. The bee is featured in many of my

designs and is also the logo of the brand,” explains Haapaniemi. The cake was creative, fun, and something a little different – a bit like the Finnish designers who, despite being less known, stood out from the masses at London Fashion Week and London Design Festival by being that little bit quirky.

For more information about the designers and events, please visit: www.trampindisguise.com www.teijaeilola.com www.anttomelasniemi.fi www.klaush.com www.londonfashionweek.co.uk www.londondesignfestival.com www. hay.dk www.jajajamusic.com

A Bee cake designed by Antto Melasniemi and Klaus Haapaniemi.

Teija Eilola

London is known as the place to discover emerging new talent, a category which this year included Finnish designers Sini Moilanen ((left) featuring her design above) and Teija Eilola ((right) featuring her design above).

Issue 69 | October 2014 | 15