The overalls

The overalls


What is an overall? When we walk around Finnish cities, we may come across students wearing a colourful jumpsuit full of patches, but what's the point? 


Color : 

Wearing an overall is a popular tradition in Finland. Each colour represents a course of study, allowing you to stand out from the others and recognise people studying the same course as you.

Yellow: engineering students

Pink: business students

Blue: exchange students

Purple: medical students

etc...

In our case, we had the choice between yellow and blue as we are exchange students but also engineers. But in the end we decided to go for yellow!



Patches : 

The overall is decorated with patches that have a special meaning and can be decorated in a variety of ways. There are patches for every occasion:

trips: patches were given to us when we went on holiday with the school's student organisation (Lapland, Norway, Stockholm...)

parties: the student organisation often organises events in bars or activities (bowling, etc.) where patches are given away

celebrations: patches have been distributed at school for Easter, for example!

The aim is to collect as many patches as possible during your years of study and fill up your orverall as much as possible. 



Concept : 

There are a number of rules that must be observed when choosing this overall:

- All patches must be sewn by hand and not glued.

- The overall must never be washed

- It must always be worn up to the waist and not all the way through until graduation. 


We found the concept of this Finnish tradition very interesting and to see in the street or at parties that all the students play the game and wear their overalls makes the concept even more incredible!



Written by Clara Lesparre

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