About

Elennah Isrik is a slow fashion brand located in Helsinki, Finland. All pieces are designed to form a compatible style and stay in the collection for as long as customers are happy to buy them. Staying away from the ever fastening cycle of fashion industry, the materials are sourced from places which can provide same fabrics longer than just for one season. There might be some limited edition prints or colour splashes in the future, but the patterns stay, along with the basic materials.

We aim to manufacture only what is needed, and that's why most of the products are made only after the order is placed. Being a tiny brand, a huge stock is not an option, and anyway there's no way of knowing what pieces might sell and what sizes the customers who buy them are. To avoid making unnecessary inventory it is better also for nature in this fast-moving world to be patient. It's slow fashion quite literally due to this business model.

 

KIRSI HANNELE

I'm the woman behind the name and brand Elennah Isrik, my name the other way around and I suppose my alter ego as a designer. My love for sewing began growing already in childhood, but I had to come a long way to start my own creative business.

To cut the story short, over the past few years I've studied fashion and graphic design, worked as a sales assistant, suffered a proper burnout, sold my apartment, quit my dayjob, took a breather, studied some more and finally invested in my own company. The course towards being an entrepeneur has come quite naturally, I've somehow always known I have to give it a go eventually, to test if I can make a living with my sense of style and creativity. What I did not expect, however, is that I would put them to test in the middle of a world-wide pandemic and if that wasn't enough, a war in Europe. Who knew.

I sometimes question if there's any point to make new clothes in a world which is suffering under the climate change, the whole industry being problematic and full of unsolved, internationally challenging issues. The reason I hold on to hope in these dark moments, is the way this business has to change and that some has to start changing it. This is not only my mountain to climb, it's the other businesses and consumers' too. Our behaviour has to adjust differently and we - as in me too - will have to learn to respect the materials as resources of continuous value, not easily disposable commodities that serve us two seconds.

 

COMPANY GOALS

I'm talking as "we" because even if I'm the only owner/worker in my company, there are a lot of people working in the supply chain of every single product. I can't introduce them all, but I will acknowledge their part and try to keep my customers and anyone interested informed of their participation too. Some day, for example, I hope to visit the cotton and flax fields, see how the yarns are spun and fabrics knitted, but I'm not quite there yet. If I'm ever going to be, it's due to my customers.

The materials selected for my collection are made from natural fibres. However, it's a challenge to avoid elasthane altogether, since it's very commonly used in rib fabrics. And although I'd like to stay away from polyester, there is the thread issue to be tacled. My promise is that I'm working on it.

I hope to see customers passionate about these things and respect not only the design but the work and people behind making the garment, and also the fiber itself in form of fabric. I hope to be able to design clothes that would stay in use for as long as possible, loved so much that when they begin to fall apart the wearers would want to repair them. And when they finally are at the end of their life cycle, return them to us or otherwise dispose of them responsibly.

One more thing.

I totally get that this site is not quite logical with FI/EN content. The reason is that for now, there's only one woman juggling every single ball behind the scenes, from IT admin to cursing at the broken needles of my sewing machines in the middle of the night. I hope I'll be able to open a bit more glorious webshop site with a massive pop of champagne bottle sometime soon! ⭐️🍾⭐️ !