Marimekko - Master Of Many Colorful Tales

“One has to dream, and one must stand out from the rest”, Armi said while creating Marimekko formerly known as Printex. Viljio Ratia and his wife Armi Ratia commissioned young artists to design for their textile company Printex. The modern and beyond its time prints attracted the eyes of several Finns. Although prints are attractive, they can be quite intimidating as well. Many don’t know how to style and sew different prints together and still manage to look like a style icon. The simple solution was to host a fashion show, to depict prints as EASY. The first collection for the fashion show for the company was designed by Riitta Immonen. She was an exquisite curator of prints. The fashion show turned out to be quite a success as the audience were in awe of the ravishingly fresh designs.

Few days later Marimekko was registered as an official company and many stores followed in the city of Helsinki. It was still a long way from fame.

In 1956, the head designer of Marimekko designs the Jokapoika ( every boy ) shirt. Turns out 60 years later the design is still in trend. Slowly it started retailing for a design store in the United States when it caught the eye of the then First lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Kennedy was a fashion icon in her era, dripped with pearls and poise. For her to buy seven dresses from Marimekko at the same time meant instant fame for the company. She also wore one of them on the cover of a December issue of sports illustrated. Now Marimekko is a common face in the magazines that rule the 21^st century, namely Elle, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and Women’s Wear Daily.

Marimekko is famous for its vividly bright designs which are also uniquely named. Some of them are Unikko, a bright floral design Tasaraita, blue and black strips Pallo, a jersey pattern. Maisema, a landscape pattern depicting varies nuances of nature. In the 1970s Marimekko was taking over the globes with a new designer on board. Their designs were so fresh that it was even shared on the cover of several Australian and Chinese magazines along with the existing countries.

The designer was the first one to design the corduroy men’s suit that is still famously worn today. Under the visions of Armi’s son, Marimekko started creating shoulder bags and traveler tote bags for sale. Later on after the expansion of the company, the then lead designer thought it would be suitable for them to expand into the homeware section of the market. Marimekko soon took over the production of wonderfully varied and colourful assortment of products, including bed linen, towels, bags and tableware.

After Armi’s death Marimekko was sold to Kirsti Paakkanen who drove the company into the modern world. She hired various young and talented designers to design the women’s business collection and their first ever knit wear collection. Marimekko widens its horizon by opening of a new store in Japan as well and at present the number of stores is already close to 40. Marimekko under new leadership made significant efforts to go international. They also launches a simple yet complex glassware collection, suitable to all tables at any occasion.

As the dawn of 21^st century was upon them, the store began selling internationally through their e- commerce website in the united states and later in Finland. To enter the world of collaborations and fashion shows and influencers, Marimekko collaborated with Converse to sell a collection of six sneakers in their store as well as in partnership with retailers. Over the years it has worked with several renowned brands such as Banana Republic, Target, Uniqlo, Clinique and has also partnered with Finnair to provide Marimekko tableware inside the plane and decorate the plane on the outside with Unikko pattern.

It has been a known participant of various fashion shows in Tokyo, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Stockholm, New York and Paris.

Standing out from the rest while they follow is what Marimekko truly stands for today as well.