Tina Tillander is a diamond merchant and a practical dissident and pioneer, leading one of the most prominent jewellers in Finland, Atelier Torbjörn Tillander on Kluuvikatu in the city centre of Helsinki.
Swimming against the tide is nothing new for the exquisite small family business. They’ve actually done it several times before, and it’s proven to be a successful concept.
Where some have moved their production to far and distant countries where the labour is cheap, Tina Tillander has built her brilliant goldsmiths the workshop of their dreams in the most prestigious business quarters in Helsinki.
Where other have saved in material costs, Tina Tillander has been even more diligent on insisting that stones of second class must never enter the workshop, and to never cut corners when it comes to the handicraft itself.
Where others have moved their business to the internet, Tina Tillander has expanded her jewellers’ shop on Kluuvikatu, where she serves her clients in person almost every day.
All of this is luxury in today’s world, but Tina Tillander prefers to rather call it quality.
Slow fashion, more style
A dear child has many names. Right now, the trend is to talk about “micro luxury” and “slow fashion”. The KonMari method of decluttering and support your local trends are old trends and friends.
Consumption madness is a mega trend that is challenged by the sustainability thinking. Atelier Torbjörn Tillander advocates for the latter and does it in an extremely trendy way.
– I follow fashion with passion and I adore all things beautiful, Tina Tillander says and continues:
– However, lately a lot of my close friends have started to challenge themselves to enjoy fashion more responsibly. Style is, however, primarily about quality above quantity.
Doing things differently
– In our case, we seem to have jumped directly from the tradition based on individuality and quality, which use to be the megatrend in the old days, to sustainability, which is the megatrend of today, Tina concludes and says:
– Luckily we jumped right over the single-use throwaway phase. That simply wasn’t anything for Atelier Torbjörn Tillander, ever.
Several others have now come to realise that valuable jewellery cannot be treasures and trash at the same time. You have to choose which one you want. And more people are choosing quality made in Finland, despite the fact it comes with a price.
Antiques of tomorrow
When you buy yourself a piece of jewellery, that you’ve had to save up for, you can be sure it will be important for you. When you then pass down that same piece to your grandchild in 2090, it will be a Finnish unique design piece made by ATT from around the 2020’ies.
– At the moment many collect my father Torbjörn Tillander’s original production, Tina Tillander smiles but points out that:
– Despite the fact diamonds are forever, jewellery design doesn’t have to be that.
There is something tremendously wonderful about antique jewellery, but sometimes our oldies and goldies tend to be forgotten and laid away in a drawer no one ever looks in. If this sounds familiar to you, I recommend you have your old piece re-made in order to preserve the precious raw materials by transforming your piece into something you would be happy to wear.
– Re-designing and pimping jewellery are an important part of our business at Atelier Torbjörn Tillander, Tina Tillander concludes and says:
– I believe that recycling precious metals and stones is on the rise as sustainability thinking gains more territory.