What makes a street style website stand out is originality of the looks and good photography. These qualities define the fixed point at which sites stop bleeding together, my interest anchors and vision comes back into focus. Liisa Jokinen and Sampo Karjalainen’s HEL LOOKS is one of those fixed points. Begun as a tribute to Shoichi Aoki’s FRUiTS and STREET magazines, HEL LOOKS documents individual style on the streets of Helsinki. “In our opinion original and personal looks are much more interesting than mainstream trends/fashion. Original looks are about creativity and self-expression.”

Kirsi (25)

Jokinen explains what inspired the site: “We started HEL LOOKS in the summer of 2005. I had been watching glam style and other colorfully dressed teenagers hanging out outside Kiasma Art Museum for a couple of months. Suddenly I realized what a colorful and interesting street scene we have here in Helsinki - much more colorful than in Stockholm, for example. We like to take photos, meet new people and we are interested in fashion and clothing. HEL LOOKS is a combination of all these. It is kind of a dream hobby.”

Antti (24)

Documenting street style on the internet is a waste of time unless the images are, at the very least, not blurry. Jokinen and Karjalainen’s excellent photography is a large part of why HEL LOOKS stands out. Apart from the website their work can be seen at an exhibition on show now in Helsinki, which is anticipated to go abroad. They’ve also been busy documenting looks for Finnish publications. “Last March we went to Tokyo to meet Shoichi Aoki. We did some style documenting there, too. The pictures were published in a Finnish magazine called Image. We’ve also done a story called TRE LOOKS (street styles from Tampere) for the Finnish newspaper Aamulehti.”

Molla Mills (27)

Juha (24), who could easily be confused with a Seattleite or Portlander

The original idea behind FRUiTS was to capture a fashion movement occurring on the streets of Harajuku that was homegrown, mixing elements from traditional Japanese dress with local brands, western styles and homemade garments or accessories. Aoki was inspired by looks that reflected the association between young people gathered in the streets that, at that time, were closed to cars on weekends. They hung out, influenced each other and did their own thing. This is what street style is all about and what Jokinen and Karjalainen try to encourage through their “dream hobby”, HEL LOOKS.