Minerva Skyttä
Fashion, clothing and textile design
Aalto University
Specialisms: Textiles - Knit / Womenswear / Textile Innovation/Textile Art
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Minerva Skyttä
First Name: Minerva
Last Name: Skyttä
Specialisms: Textiles - Knit / Womenswear / Textile Innovation/Textile Art
Sectors:
My Location: Helsinki, Finland
University / College: Aalto University
Course / Program Title: Fashion, clothing and textile design
About
Minerva Skyttä is a Finnish fashion designer from Aalto University in Helsinki. As a designer, she focuses on creating innovative and sculptural knitwear. Skyttä's designs emphasize her creativity, artistic vision, and technical skill. Her work combines traditional craftsmanship with modern fashion ideas, creating new and inspiring visual compositions.
In addition to fashion design, Skyttä studies politics and communication at the University of Helsinki, demonstrating her broad interest in societal issues. This interest is reflected in her approach towards fashion design: Her designs are individual art pieces not intended for mass production nor replication. She views fashion as an art form and opposes fast fashion and overconsumption.
My inspiration for creating knitwear is based on my ancestors' correspondence from the early 1900s in Finland and China. In 2018, I received a box of letters from my grandmother. These brown, neatly folded letters contain stories spanning about a hundred years, with various recipients and writers. Together, they form an intriguing picture of my family's dramatic life around the world. My great-great-great-grandfather, Hannes Sjöblom, was Finland's first missionary to China in the early 1900s. He fell in love with China at first sight and wrote in a letter in 1901: "The journey from Shanghai to here (Hankou) took four days. During this time, our love for this country, and for these people, who swarm around us like ants, has grown. Seeing the well-tended green fields along the majestic Yangtze River, one couldn't help but exclaim: oh, what a magnificent country!" Hannes took stunning photos of China, which are preserved in Finland's National Archives. These photos are the inspiration for my work, in particular, the photos featuring the sails of Chinese ships. The white sails, with their straight wooden masts, holes, and wear, are echoed in my pieces through the use of paper yarn and white cotton yarn. Additionally, I mimic the letters' unique characteristics in my work. From the marks of time such as stains, sun fading, ink yellowing, and the fragile condition of the paper, to the contents of the letters themselves.
Competitions
