Style & Design
Originally published on Wednesday, 2nd April 2008
Finnish Line
Ikea, with its funny Swedish names, is about to be trumped by a new company. With funny Finnish names. Specialising in amazing glassware, Iittala arrived in London in January and, tucked away on Regent Street, it somehow slipped through our fingers.
Glass is priced according to the difficulty in processing its colour, so that blue glass is cheap, for example, whilst pink is expensive (girls are high maintenance abroad too it would seem). All of the ranges are created by well-known Finnish designers, uniting together against throwawayism. UJ loves the glass birds and the Taika range of crockery meaning magic in Finnish, it's covered in mystical birds and eerie Scandinavian forests.
The assistant manager Tommy knows his Iittala history back to front, and makes for a great tour guide. He can even say the funny Finnish names without spitting everywhere.
Iittala - www.iittala.com
Taika range, £6.50 - £25.50
Birds - £49 - £1,185
126 Regent Street, W1B 5SD - 0207 287 5600
