Browsing by Author "Hämäläinen, Anu Kaarina"

The tradition of national costumes of Finland was born along with other efforts of national romanticism during the second half of the 19th century. National dresses were used to emphasize and elevate nationality and the love of one's home regions. The national costume is a very strong symbol of national identity as a performance and as a ceremonious costume. The Finns have developed a tradition of mores and culture of the use of national dresses. As of all national traditions, it involves also excluding attitudes. These attitudes are being destabilized by the national dress aficionados of the 21th century. My interests lay in these ways of destabilizing the traditions of the national costume and the so-called misuse of the national dress. I aim to deconstruct the meanings given to national costumes by their wearers. In this study I will explore how the national dress is misused: how to apply and adapt the tradition, and how to rework items from the costume to other forms of clothing as bricolage, and how this activity is interpreted in the Kansallispuku (national costume) group in Facebook. The subject of this research is a social media community: the interactions in the Kansallispuku group. I approach the subject with the method of ethnography of the virtual communities, i.e. netnography. The frame of reference in this study is in the tradition of the study of dress and clothing with semiotic approach. Although the misuse and the adaptations of the national costume tradition can be seen as a derogating element, it appears in this study that these actions can even fortify the values of the tradition. National dress is now seen in the everyday use also. In this phenomena can also be seen some aspects of sustainability and fashionability. The misuse of the national costume appears as a takeover of one's traditions, and it is encouraged in the community of aficionados this study is focusing on.