The fabric store located in Kerava for more than 40 years invented an attractive advertising trick already decades ago. It has brought men to skirt shops every leap year.
Fabric store Tyykipoito has prepared for Leap Day again.
The fabric store located in the center of Kerava for 44 years offers skirt fabrics for men at a discounted price this year as well, and at the same time encourages women to propose.
According to an old tradition, women are allowed to propose on Leap Day, and if the man gives the gloves, he must buy the woman skirt fabrics. Leap Day is celebrated today, Thursday, February 29, 2024.
“A playful thing, a really warm and happy thing!” the shopkeeper describes the tradition Leena Sarin.
Sarin has run a fabric shop at the same address since 1980. 11 leap days have already been held in the shop.
During the seven leap days, the store has offered a discount on skirt fabrics based on quantity. You get a 10 percent discount for one fabric, twenty percent for two, and thirty percent for three.
“We still have men in skirt shops every leap year,” confirms Sarin.
Tyykipuoti, a fabric store in Kerava, offers men a discount on skirt fabrics in honor of Leap Day.
In the last decade, a long-time customer, who turned out to be a real serial suitor, introduced several prospective grooms to skirt shops.
“He was a charming elderly person with a sense of humor. She proposed to a man every leap day and thus always got herself a new skirt fabric”, Sarin laughs.
“There are so many not-so-happy things in the world. It's fun to have a sense of playfulness and a sense of humor.”
Courtships have sometimes also led to marriage, in which case the skirt fabric has remained unpurchased.
It has also been seen in the shop that the marriage was concluded despite the purchase of skirt fabric.
According to Sarin, leap day was once the only chance for women to propose, because proposing was the job of men.
Nowadays, the tradition of leap day is popular with older people, but even middle-aged skirt fabric buyers have been seen in the store after leap days.
“It's a joke, but it's also been used to one's advantage. Sometimes the suitor already went to choose the fabric and the man was given precise instructions on how to buy the fabric.”
Today the shopkeeper, who will turn 80 in
“Wonderful work and wonderful customers. And our wonderful products,” says Sarin.
According to the shopkeeper at Tyykipood, long skirts are in fashion this year.
Sarin works in the store every Saturday and on her daughter's days off. Daughter Nina Sarin-Seliverstov has also worked in the store for decades.
The store's future is currently in the balance, as the property built in 1979 has received a demolition order. Demolition may be ahead as early as next fall.
“We don't have any information on where the head will be tilted. It's sad,” says Siren.
Today in spring, according to Siren, long skirts in the style of the 1990s are in fashion. It is also a good thing for fabric store owners.
“It's nice that the models have a long skirt and the hem can still have a frill or fringe. In summer, long and flowing skirt fabrics are used anyway.”
Leap day in the western calendar, February 29 is generally celebrated every four years.
A day is added to a leap year so that the calendar seasons match the astronomical seasons. The Earth's rotation around the sun takes about six hours longer than 365 days.
Leap years are years divisible by four. Leap day is not celebrated in years divisible by one hundred, except if the year is divisible by four hundred.
Until the end of the 1990s, leap day was celebrated in Finland on February 24.
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