Bright Marimekko design has returned to the large windows of the legendary Design Research Building in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Design Research (D/R), the famous retailer and importer that closed its doors in 1978, had a significant role in Marimekko’s history by bringing the brand to the US market in 1959. It was at D/R that Jacqueline Kennedy purchased the Marimekko dress she was wearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1960.

Now Jane Thompson, wife of the late architect Benjamin C. Thompson, who founded D/R, has together with a team of D/R alumni created window displays for the momentarily empty Design Research Building. The displays feature both classic and new Marimekko fabrics as well as vintage dress designs from the 1950s through the 1970s, loaned from collectors, mixed with current Marimekko fashions. The beautiful window displays celebrate the 50-year anniversary of the beginning of the partnership between D/R and Marimekko.

The window installation at the Design Research Building will show until winter 2010. As an exhibition, the building will not be open or operate as a store, but will be utilized for special community events and benefits.

The Anniversary Exhibit committee chaired by Jane Thompson also includes designers Peter Wheeler, Blase Gallo, and Karen Lewis; curator Susan Ward, filmmaker Caroline Van Valkenburgh, retailers Nancy Hemenway, Judy and Jon DeMont, and Suzanne Larsen of the Marimekko Concept Store Cambridge on Huron Avenue.

Address of Design Research Building:
48 Brattle Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
USA

For further information:

MARIMEKKO CORPORATION
Marketing Communications

Tiina Alahuhta-Kasko
PR Manager
Tel. +358 9 7587 328
Mobile: +358 50 3019 379
Fax: +358 9 7591 676
E-mail: tiina.alahuhta-kasko@marimekko.fi