Sixty years of earning stripes

Marimekko has been a part of Finnish homes and fashion for 60 years. To celebrate, the Design Museum in Helsinki presents an exhibition of products from all six decades.

Different rooms at the Design Museum tell tales from different periods of the Marimekko timeline. One corner tells the story of Jacqueline Kennedy. She was widely followed and copied, and after the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine featured a photograph of her wearing a dress by Vuokko Nurmesniemi, Marimekko gained a new level of credibility. The reputation is still strong.

“Marimekko prints mean that all is well at home – my life is going well and all those close to me are feeling fine, too,” says Nanna Susi, a renowned painter in her 40s who has come to see the Design Museum exhibition. “When I buy socks for my son, a warm feeling goes through me and I feel all is well.” Her seven-year-old son is wearing a T-shirt with Marimekko’s trademark pattern of stripes. “I myself don’t wear Marimekko, other than the nightgown maybe,” she says.

Canvas bags on everyone’s shoulders

Armi and Vilho Ratia started Marimekko in 1951, in order to make clothing out of Maija Isola’s printed cloths, which they had already been producing in their company Printext. Armi Ratia was the leader until her death in 1979.

The official story has it that after Armi Ratia was gone, there was no bright direction in the company. Multibrand company Amer brought it in 1985, but could not develop it. The unofficial history tells us that in the late 1980s prints and stripes were out of fashion.

But as time passed, Kirsti Paakkanen, a successful advertising agency owner who had just retired and bought a mansion in France, was coaxed into buying Marimekko, in 1991. She got inspired, and once she got going, she gave the company the benefit of all her knowledge and wisdom. At the same time the tide was changing. At first canvas bags came back to the streets. Travelling abroad, one could always spot Finns by the bags they were carrying on their shoulders.

Cotton and print revival

Then came a retro revival hearkening back to the 1960s and ’70s. We let our hair down and picked up the flowers again. With Paakkanen at the helm, Marimekko flourished. In the new millennium Mika Ihamuotila has taken over from her.

Other companies also discovered the world of prints, and suddenly Marimekko had home-grown Finnish competitors such as Nanso, Ivana Helsinki and Globe Hope, to name a few. At the moment, Marimekko is expanding, opening up new stores in all over the world.

Exporting ideals

In the beginning of March 2011, Marimekko’s 21st concept store opened in Japan, this time in Sasebo, a southern harbour town of 260,000 inhabitants. The US is home to 24 Marimekko stores, concept stores and retailers across the country.

Marimekko products have been available on the US market since 1959. The company started collaborating with the famous home furnishing retailer Crate & Barrel in 1967. In October 2010 a Marimekko shop opened at Crate & Barrel in Soho, New York, and within the next three years Crate & Barrel is set to open 22 Marimekko shop-in-shops

Demand is strong all over the world. Marimekko stores recently opened in Berlin; Seoul, South Korea; and Malmö, Sweden.

Text by Sara Nyberg for This is Finland (Link to another website.) (Opens New Window)

Marimekko: A whole life at the Design Museum(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window) in Helsinki until May 29, 2011.