Runway Ready

Konsta Eskola’s BA graduate collection, Runway Ready, draws inspiration from airline uniform dress codes and explores the associations and connections between airline uniforms and their wearers. All textiles in the collection are sourced from used Finnair uniforms, which Eskola has deconstructed and repurposed into new materials. His personal experience of working as a cabin crew member, alongside a deep interest in second-hand materials, has been the key motivation behind the collection.

Central to my collection are the questions: Who holds the power? and ‘Who dresses whom, how, and why? I view airline uniforms as intricate, performative embodiments of dress, manifesting both power and powerlessness. The uniform grants the wearer authority yet blends them into a collective identity. This paradox—where clothing both empowers and restricts—is what made this topic so compelling to me.

The materials in Eskola’s collection are the outcome of carefully developed surface treatment and bonding techniques, resulting in a range of shiny, stiff materials that play with the structured, polished aesthetic of airline uniforms.

The manipulation and reworking of the second-hand materials I received from Finnair was an incredibly important part of the process as I wanted to make the materials truly my own. Another goal was to turn mass-produced garments into truly one-of-a-kind pieces. While I aimed to change the look and the feel of the materials, I also wanted to honour their origins and preserve some aspects of them—such as the subtle variations in colours and the natural signs of wear and tear.

The collection also features garments made from second-hand leather and handcrafted aluminium accessories. Both materials nod to airplane interiors and aircraft design, tying everything back to the world of aviation. In line with Eskola’s design philosophy, the leather is second-hand, and the use of both leather and aluminium was optimised from pattern making to the cutting of the final materials. Even scrap pieces of aluminium were reworked into buttons and other metal details in the collection.

Contact information:

Konsta Eskola

konsta.eskola@aalto.fi

+358440170198

@konstaeskola