Jasmin’s Catwalk

GERMAN SCHOOL HELSINKI 

I am Jasmin Santanen, I was born in Helsinki Maternity Hospital December 11th.

Jasmin Santanen Family Album

My mother is German and my father is Finnish.

I’m an only child.

YLE / Photo Jussi Meling / Jasmin Santanen / Deutsche Schule Helsinki

We are here in the German school in Helsinki.

I went to this school for 12 years.

YLE / Photo Jussi Meling / Jasmin Santanen / Deutsche Schule Helsinki

My father was a sea captain.

At the time of his graduation, he was the youngest sea captain known.

My mother was born in Germany and they met on a cruise ship.

Jasmin Santanen Family Album 

That cruise ship became my second home at some point, and I was a bit like the Love Boat’s Vicky. Maybe I was a little bit presumptuous then…

My father spent most of his time on cruise ships.

Of course, the most exceptional cruises were when we went to the Canary Islands and Africa.

My father was a gemini.

He had many facets, not just two, he was both highly respected in his profession as a sea captain, but also a very artistic, kind of amateur magician and regular member of the Magic Circle association.

YLE / President Urho Kekkonen and Sea Captain Matti Santanen

YLE / Sea Captain Matti Santanen / Finnstar 

My father put on magic shows for the ship’s guests in the dance salon.

My first time in Paris, I had never experienced anything as great and beautiful as Paris at the age of 13. The city had such a rich aesthetic – a cornucopia of abundance. It felt like being in a candy store, where you didn’t know what to take nor choose, there was so much inspiration.

LANCOME PRESS DAY WITH HOST BABA LYBECK AND KOKO HUBARA

YLE / Photo Hannu Kettunen / Jasmin Santanen, Koko Hubara, Baba Lybeck / Lancome

-In the next hour, we’re going to talk about happiness and what makes a busy modern woman happy. A warm welcome to fashion designer Jasmin Santanen.

YLE / Photo Hannu Kettunen / Jasmin Santanen / Lancome 

– Thank you.

– Directly from Paris. In France, dressing is in a completely different position than in Finland? 

– Yes, in France it was really Louis XIV who kind of created the concept of fashion.

One was more appreciated for appearance than achievements

-Remember!

YLE / Photo Hannu Kettunen / Koko Hubara, Baba Lybeck, Jasmin Santanen / Lancome 

I’m a visionary, I get excited by my own ideas and for me happiness also means overcoming a challenge that seems insurmountable, being able to throw myself into a project.

YLE / Photo Jussi Meling

At the time I started my studies at Parsons School of Design in New York, I couldn’t draw nor sew. It was the first step in discovering skills within myself I didn’t know existed. I’m still on that road, continuing to explore these new depths.

YLE / Photo Jussi Meling / Jasmin Santanen Illustrations 

We shouldn’t underestimate the importance of fashion, it’s like our second skin.

How we present ourselves is how we are regarded. A huge difference between France and Finland

YLE / Photo Jussi Meling / Spalt Pr 

In France style and appearance is everything.

Not that you should only have designer clothes, on the contrary, you might be laughed at if you lose yourself in becoming someone else’s product.

A certain sophisticated thought-through feel, even carelessness adds to the overall look 

My father being a sea captain, my mother had many official receptions to dress for.

She was a skilled self taught seamstress and from a young age, I went shopping for fabrics for clothes with her.

YLE / HRH Princess Margaret, Sea Captain Matti Santanen / Finnpartner 

My mother was a very elegant person, from her I inherited a certain fashion sense and innate “flair.”

YLE / Jasmin Santanen Family Album 

My father had a strong influence on my childhood. He died the year I had my high school final exams. I was 17 then.

Jasmin Santanen Family Album

My dad’s ideal female character was Gilda, that is, Rita Hayworth’s role in the film Gilda.

I was daddy’s girl. My father encouraged me to take up different hobbies. I went to ice skating classes, took tap dancing and flamenco dance lessons…

                     

                     Jasmin Santanen Family Album

He wished I would become a female magician and as a child I had all those magic tools & tricks, magic hats and little magician’s treats to explore.

My mother considered my father’s artistic friends as daydreamers, and the whole magic circle association and their gatherings was not my mother’s idea of a decent way to make a living.

YLE / The Magic Circle from left Nokikolari, Solmu Mäkelä, Jukka Santanen, Matti Santanen / Jasmin Santanen Family Album 

If anything, I feel having inherited from my father a mindset that helps me apply a sense of magic into my everyday tasks. In a way, I’ve managed to move mountains by pulling a rabbit out of my hat thanks to my unwavering faith in the “Simsalabim -Abracadabra” spells.

I’ve inherited my mother’s fighter spirit, that I do not give up.

When my father was away, my mother and I got into disputes all the time.

YLE / Jasmin Santanen Family Album

SPALT PRESS OFFICE WITH SIRU PALMROOS 

– Greetings from the heat of Paris!

– Lovely to see you!

– You can put the new fall collection here. Here’s this spring. You can go through them to see if you want to take something off… We could leave this for example, thinking of Nazimar

YLE / Photo Jussi Meling / Siru Palmroos, Jasmin Santanen / Spalt Pr

– So it’s the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare show, we have a couple of summer things to check.

WITH ACTRESS ALINA TOMNIKOVA 

– Are you entirely Finnish yourself, by the way?

YLE / Photo Jussi Meling / Jasmin Santanen, Alina Tomnikova / Spalt Pr

– Good question. I am Finnish yes, I was born here, and then left for two or three years in America. I went to school in New York and then continued my studies in Paris where I have stayed since. I’ve been in Paris now for 26-years.

– Sounds like a really interesting journey.

YLE / Photo Jussi Meling / Jasmin Santanen, Alina Tomnikova, Siru Palmroos / Spalt Pr

MANNERHEIM LEAGUE FOR CHILD WELFARE FUNDRAISING GALA 

HOST SAMI SYKKÖ 

-Jasmin Santanen is introduced by Alina Tomnikova, who was with us in the “Putous” tv-show.

YLE / Photo Jussi Meling

-Alina is wearing Jasmin Santanen, a clothing brand launched in 2005, the collection is mainly made in ateliers in France.

YLE / Photo Jussi Meling / Alina Tomnikova

– And now a woman who during her career has been in almost all of the most respected roles in classical ballet: Minna Tervamäki.

YLE / Photo Jussi Meling / Minna Tervamäki

– She presents Jasmin Santanen lovely Parisian elegance

….The silk prints are self-designed….

BASTILLE QUAI D’ARSENAL

YLE / Photo Jussi Meling / Jasmin Santanen

I started my brand, my business all alone.

A lot needs to happen for your investments to bear fruit. One is obliged to make decisions, you cannot indefinitely continue to think that things will be better next season.

You have to realize when the current equation just doesn’t work.

How can things be so difficult, why is there so much misfortune despite investing yourself wholeheartedly, is this just bad luck or is there some law of karma or undiscovered soul journey I need to face. What is the price to pay for achieving happiness?

YLE / Photo Jussi Meling / Jasmin Santanen

One day I woke up realizing that I’m no longer the person I want to be.

I’ve been torn between the joy of being in a creative field and having to deal with very shallow people and issues on a daily basis

The ruthlessness and vanity of the fashion world … the price I pay to get to do the few things I like.

YLE / Photo Jussi Meling

Physically, I was much more present in the public eye and many felt that I was more successful then. Indeed I was successful in many ways, but internally I felt imprisoned.

ISLAND OF KEMIÖ WITH HANNA NORE

YLE / Photo Jussi Meling / Hanna Nore, Jasmin Santanen

– Hello!

– Oh, sorry, I already started.

– No problem, that’s great!

– I took a zander, local. Let us first remove the fish meat here, and especially this white fish fat.

YLE / Photo Jussi Meling / Hanna Nore, Jasmin Santanen

-Here we have some salmon, this one is Norwegian salmon

– For real, this is absolutely fantastic, the color that comes from this, the shades, this light one and the degradée …

– I can oil this. If you want to soften it you can do it here.

– Here’s some prepared fish ready, it’s a little bit thicker like this, so it  goes well under the industrial sewing machine. It can be washed in a washing machine.

– Really?

– Yes, in 40 degrees.

YLE / Photo Jussi Meling

– What else do you have there?

– We have some locally raised rabbit pelts.

– Where do the rabbits come from?

– There are quite a few  people out there breeding rabbits for food. Families live off raising 10 rabbits and then selling them for food.

– Then, of course, we have the Foxes. They are used for collars, to the edges of the hat…

YLE / Photo Jussi Meling / Hanna Nore, Jasmin Santanen

– How are these organic, where do these foxes come from?

– This fox was hit by a car, it’s a roadkill fox.

– It’s amazing that they have such a great scent. Usually when dealing with dead animal fur….

– When tanned well naturally, there should be no odor.

– It’s almost like the animal spirit is still present in a good way…

YLE / Photo Jussi Meling / Jasmin Santanen / Musee du Quai Branly -Jacques Chirac

– I often visit the Museum of Indigenous Peoples in Paris, where you can see how amazing they are at the work they have done.

– In the Arctic, fish skin leather has been used forever because they survive on fish and then the remaining parts are further processed so that nothing gets wasted.

YLE / Photo Jussi Meling / Jasmin Santanen / Musee du Quai Branly -Jacques Chirac

I consider my work as a designer a bit like a songwriter expressing himself through his lyrics or a filmmaker through his story …

The collections I designed  grew gradually more into a storytelling form where the meaningfulness of the story became more important than the aspect of endlessly creating new fashion styles…

Some years ago, we made a collection inspired by Jim Morrison honoring the 40th anniversary of his disappearance in Paris. 

I use the word “disappeared” because I’m not sure he died then.

YLE / Photo Jussi Meling / Jasmin Santanen Archives

Working on the Jim Morrison inspired collection opened a whole new world and brought a new vocabulary to me. Through him I got introduced to the concept of animism and shamanism, which I realized being part of my own Finnish heritage. My father was a modern day shaman. I spent long hours with him in the forest. He taught me all about mushrooms and other nature offerings.

YLE / Photo Jussi Meling / Hanna Nore, Jasmin Santanen

As a Finn living in France for the past 25 years, I’ve come to realize that we Finns have this innate relationship with nature, where our whole society is built on a concept of equality and harmony and we do not understand how it could be any different elsewhere. In current times, we Finns have an incredible advantage when circumstances demand that the whole world returns to nature.

The indigenous people have a perception of the spirit world that when an animal dies, they believe the animal is giving its life to protect the tribe…

So it’s a purely positive relationship, it empowers the receiver (the bearer) and is totally ecological, and it sends out a positive peace-loving message.

YLE / Photo Jussi Meling / Jasmin Santanen / Musee du Quai Branly -Jacques Chirac

SINGING CLASS

I got to a point where I started having panic disorders, making me withdraw from public appearances.

I started attending singing lessons because I felt it helped me face the lack of confidence to speak in public.

YLE / Photo Jussi Meling / Meriam Serbah, Jasmin Santanen

Singing gave me this incredible feeling of empowerment. It allowed me to access a state of flow, a form of euphoria, where you feel that the world belongs to you.

YLE / Photo Jussi Meling / Jasmin Santanen

PERE LACHAISE CEMETERY JIM MORRISON’S GRAVE

Jim Morrison used to live here in my neighborhood in Paris. We did a collection in his honor called Love Her Madly. The research done on him for the collection brought us so much new material allowing us to get closer to the real person in contrast to the known rock star that did drugs and supposedly died of a heart attack due to an overdose.

YLE / Photo Jussi Meling / Jasmin Santanen / Pere Lachaise

I learned how he was influenced by the Native American culture and how, as a young child, he had seen a Native American family in a deadly car accident. It was then he felt that the soul of the dead Native American child had entered his body.

YLE / Jim Morrison Grave / Pere Lachaise

At a time when things did not seem to advance at all, despite working endless hours and giving your everything, when I simply couldn’t resolve certain issues with reason, that’s when astrology helped me a lot.

YLE / Photo Jussi Meling / Jasmin Santanen / Musee du Quai Branly -Jacques Chirac

Astrology provides a kind of a roadmap pointing out certain directions, the meaning behind the lessons and why certain difficulties must come up at some point. Not because we should be crushed, but because we are getting stronger as a result of overcoming the challenge.

YLE / Photo Jussi Meling / Jasmin Santanen / Musee du Quai Branly -Jacques Chirac

Through this I’ve also come to be aware of the invisible world. According to the indigenous peoples, our ancestors continue to be present in spirit and to support and guide us with our lives. I have experienced this with my father. I never felt him having left for good, on the contrary, I feel that he is more present in my life since he passed away.

YLE / Photo Jussi Meling / Jasmin Santanen

I’m working on a big new project which is based on Finland’s role and how it can be an example to other European countries on the importance of living in harmony with nature. 

Sometimes I get shivers because I have started a project, which has taken me on a vast territory far beyond my fashion designer’s identity, to bring forward a huge global concept on how the world can be healed…

Appearances By:                                                                            

Jasmin Santanen                                                         Producer:                                                              Sound Effects:

Baba Lybeck                                                                 Ari Lehikoinen                                                       Anssi Tammine

Siru Palmroos / Spalt Pr                                             Co-producer:                                                        Color Effects:

Alina Tomnikov                                                           Maija Roivainen                                                     Anssi Rautio

Krista Kosonen                                                            Assistant Producer:                                           Photography:

Hanna Nore                                                                  Ville Vilen                                                                Jussi Meling

Meriem Serbah                                                            Graphics:                                                              Hannu Kettunen

Director & Writer:                                                      Tomi Paijo                                                              Petri Krook

Nina Stenros                                                                 Sound:                                                                   Camera Assistant:

Anu Valve                                                                      Antti Kukkavuori                                                   Nikolai Ladikain

Pekka Pylkko