In Kaius Viljanen’s BA Fashion graduate collection hip hop meets men’s tailoring. The collection features hip hop clothing that have been made using traditional tailoring methods, including lots of hand sewing and padding.

Viljanen views pieces of clothing as objects that are fun to feel and to look at up close. His collection consists of clothes that can stand well on their own. He thinks that clothes do not only exist as parts of a larger whole but are also objects that can be appreciated on their own right.

– I am also interested in the garment as a whole, as an object that has an inside and an outside. Sometimes the inside of a garment can even be more important than its outside, Viljanen says.

For the collection Viljanen made garments that consist of rare early 2000’s Finnish hip hop merch shirts and pieces that have been beautifully hand sewn from natural fibers. Some of the iconic shirts he had wanted to own ended up in his collection as replicas, giving the shirts extra value.

– I also collaborated with a few legendary Finnish hip hop artists for some of the prints of the collection as well as with some other designers with shoes and jewelry, he contends.