VICE Fashion – Saami Boarding School

Tomas: The most exciting thing about working in reindeer husbandry is bringing in the reindeers for spring and seeing how many calves have made it, seeing the cattle evolve and grow, being successful at it. T-shirt by Penguin Marja-Susanna: I’ve been in a helicopter too, just like Niklas’s friend [check “Arctic Birdie” for more on this discussion], but when I got nauseous I just opened the window a little to get fresh air. Then they put me down on the mountainside and told me to wait for the motor crosses. T-shirt by Whyred, Cardigan by Velourt Cariola: When the priests came and christened people they would just randomly give the Saami new made-up names. When my grandfather became a vicar he got a new name. Everyone just got re-named Eriksson, all the traditional Saami names became –son names. I used to be a student when this was a dorm. I didn’t live here, but I used to go here to look at boys, ha ha.

Cardigan by Velour



Markus: Usually I work at the fire station, but tomorrow I’m going to go vaccinate some of the reindeers. Actually it’s not a vaccine, everyone just calls it that. It’s really just medication against parasites. You can’t even vaccinate against that. If we just left it, it wouldn’t kill them or anything, but it would be very uncomfortable for them.

Jacket by Penguin



Sara: My school is completely project based, so even though I don’t live in Lappland I’ve been able to spend a couple of months there. My mum is Saami, and my whole family lives in Lappland, all my friends. I don’t speak Saami, I’ve never had any home-language teaching, I’m really not that interested. I understand a little because my grandmother has been speaking Saami to me. I don’t want reindeers either, I’ll get one maybe, tops.

Tank by Penguin, top by American Apparel, jeans by Levi’s