42FINNISH DESIGNMARIMEKKO

modernspring 2006

Marimekko – Finely FinnishInternationally renowned as a powerhouse of modern pattern design, the iconic Finnish company Marimekko is synonymous with dynamic high-voltage printed textiles. Lesley Jackson reports.

Founded in Helsinki in 1951, Marimekko was the

brainchild of the visionary Armi Ratia, a textile

designer with a gift for PR. The company grew

out of another firm called Printex, specialising in hand

screen-printed cotton furnishing fabrics, established two

years earlier by Ratia and her husband. The Marimekko

fashion line was initially created to provide new outlets for

these textiles.

Marimekko means ‘a dress for Mary’- Mari being a symbol

offorward-looking Finnish womanhood.Ratia’s idea was to

produce loose-fitting, easy-to-wear clothes suitable for

women of all ages and sizes in bold, eye-catching prints.

Marimekko was so successful that it eventually subsumed its

sister company Printex in 1966.But the fact that Marimekko

started life as two separate enterprises explains its unusual

product range – furnishing fabrics and fashion (most firms

tend to specialise in one or the other) – and the enduring

centrality ofpattern to the identity ofthe brand.

Shortly after setting up the company,Armi Ratia recruited

two young female designers, fresh out of art school. Totally

committed to artistic originality, she encouraged them to

produce exciting modern designs.Maija Isola,who was also

a painter, concentrated on patterns for furnishing fabrics.

Vuokko Nurmesniemi, who had originally trained in

ceramics, took the lead in fashion, designing both printed

dress fabrics and the garments themselves. Hand-drawn

stripes were her forte, printed in dazzling combinations of

overlapping colours – a hallmark ofthe Marimekko style.

By the end ofthe 1950s Marimekko had made its mark in

Finland, where it had opened several stores. The following

decade it conquered the United States, its reputation

enhanced by the patronage of Jacqueline Kennedy, who

bought a clutch ofMarimekko frocks in 1960.Annika Rimala,

who had originally trained as a graphic designer, was

Marimekko’s chief fashion designer during the 1960s. Like

Nurmesniemi, she designed both patterns and dresses,

creating an extraordinary symbiosis between the two.

Maija Isola,who designed with Marimekko from 1949-87,

was very much a free spirit. Consistently inventive, she

ignored conventions and pursued a radical artistic agenda of

her own. During her career she created over five hundred

astonishing patterns. It is these designs – reissued in

increasing numbers over the last five years - which have

triggered Marimekko’s recent revival.Isola died in 2001,but

her daughter Kristina,who worked closely with her in later

life, now oversees the relaunch of her mother’s perennially

modern ‘vintage’ prints. Although originally conceived as

curtain fabrics, many of her patterns are now used in

Marimekko’s fashion line.

So what is it about Maija Isola’s patterns that make them

so imposing? First of all, they are often gigantic. Take a

pattern like Albatrossi,designed in 1967.Its huge repeat fills

the whole width of the fabric. The daringly asymmetrical,

Left:

Unikko (red) by Maija

Isola/Kristina Isola,1964,

Continuing Collection,

Marimekko

Facing page:

Vire150by Fujiwo Ishimoto,

Fujiwo Ishimoto Special

Collection, Marimekko