National attitudes towards clothes

In his column for the daily newspaper Keskipohjanmaa, Tapio Lehtinen cites the words of Finnish singer Tomi Metsäketo, who said that he loved Italy because there men are men and women are women and he likes women to wear skirts rather than leggings. "[The singer] is deliberately exaggerating but he's right: it's nice to see an Italian woman wearing a dress. ... It certainly would do our street scene no harm if the Finns had a little more sense of style. But in Finland one doesn't dress up for others; people think the importance of clothes shouldn't be exaggerated. I don't know what the Italians do every day but here in Finland the day begins with bringing the children to the nursery and then they're picked up in the afternoon - no matter what the weather. On the way back we go shopping and then cook. In the evening the children are taken to their hobby activities. With all this hustle and bustle clothes and the way you look simply aren't at the top of your list of priorities."

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