During my years as a student, I’ve come by a question that many of my foreign friends (no matter if on exchange or doing a degree here) have posed to me: “What are those outfits those students are wearing”… “Is it something typical”.
Today’s post is about the very essential of student life: the student overall. The tradition of wearing overalls landed to Finland from our dear western neighbour somewhere in the 1970’s. The people to wear them on this side of the Baltic Sea were engineering students at the Helsinki University of Technology (nowadays Schools of Technology at Aalto University), from where the tradition was spread to other universities, and in the more recent years also to universities of applied sciences (sv. yrkeshögskola, fi. ammattikorkeakoulu).
So, what does an overall tell about the person who is wearing it? I tend to say that it’s a sort of an ID card of a student. It tells what do you study and where: in my case for example the green colour and the logo of Pappagallo in the back tell the other that I studied Italian as major in University of Turku (in the past). Now that I started to study Primary Education here in Åbo Akademi, I didn’t want to get a new overall, since I wanted to remain unique, as no one else has this kind of an overall in Va(a)sa. The colour of overalls varies from one university to another. For example the Primary Education students in Rauma have yellow overalls, where as our very own FSLF has violet as the colour. The overall might even tell the relationship status of the person in question: if you notice a piece of overall with other colour on one of the overall legs, you know that the person wearing it is taken.
The patches above are waiting to be sewn…
I have hundreds of patches in my overall, which contributes to the fact that it weighs quite much more than an ordinary work overall. It might sound tiring to sew all the patches, but it can actually be a really nice activity, especially if the weather is bad outside, or if you otherwise feel bored. Put on some music, get needle and thread, and start sewing. 🙂
In the link below, you are introduced to Matti Änkö, a 50-year-old guy who holds the Finnish record in the amount of overall patches. He has ABOUT 3500 OF THEM. The article is from Satakunnan Kansa newspaper (in Finnish).
https://www.satakunnankansa.fi/a/cfc124c7-fa31-4629-a849-dcc15acc854e
SOME ESSENTIAL RULES CONCERNING OVERALLS:
- DO NOT EVER WASH YOUR OVERALL! (the only exception is if someone pukes on it) However, you can swim with your overall on.
- Attend the inauguration event for the overall, if such tradition exists within your student association. Follow the instructions given carefully.
- Used overalls are not to be resold. Once you get one, it’s yours for life.
SOME PERSONAL TIPS:
- DON’T BE BORING AND BUY ESN OVERALL. Take contact with the student association of your subject and buy one from them instead. It’s way more unique, once you go home, since ESN overalls share the same colour. However, if you do buy ESN overall, make sure that you customize it as much as possible.
- A good thing to do is to buy fabric letters and sew them to one of the legs. That makes it easier for new people you meet to eg. get the hang of the spelling of your name when you introduce yourself.
- Thicker thread and bigger needle give better results in the beginning, if you are not confident about your sewing skills.
- Your correct overall size should be a bit bigger than clothes you normally wear, since you want to be able to wear it also when it’s cold outside.
- Wear the overall always in parties, if you are unsure about what to wear.
- Buy patches whenever possible, eg. when you travel and visit other cities, countries and events. Be on time in parties, if there will be overall patches given out to the fastest ones.
Some links for buying patches online:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/889196024478349/
I think I will start sewing those patches you saw on one of the pictures, since it’s raining now, haha.
– Pekka