Marimekko – bold confidence since 1951
First there was Printex, a company producing oilcloth and printed fabrics, which Viljo Ratia bought in 1949. His wife, Armi Ratia, commissioned young artists to design fabric prints for the company, which resulted in entirely new, boldly coloured and patterned fabrics. People admired them, but did not really know what use they could have. So it was decided to make a small collection of clothing to demonstrate the uses of the fabrics, and to establish a separate company – Marimekko Oy – to make the clothing. The first Marimekko collection was designed by Riitta Immonen and was presented to the Finnish public in a fashion show at the Kalastajatorppa restaurant in Helsinki in May 1951.
1949 Maija Isola designed her first fabrics for Printex. She continued to design for Marimekko until 1987. Isola was an important reformer and forerunner in the design of printed fabrics. Unikko from 1964 is the most widely known among her extremely popular fabric designs.
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1951 Marimekko was officially entered into the Finnish Trade Register on 25 May.
1952 The first company-owned retail shop was opened.
1953 Vuokko Nurmesniemi joined Marimekko as a designer of clothing and printed fabrics for garments and interior decoration. She played an important role in shaping Marimekko’s original line in fashions and in developing production. In 1953, she designed the striped Piccolo fabric, and from it the Jokapoika shirt in 1956, which is still being made. Vuokko Nurmesniemi worked at Marimekko until 1960.
1954 The Marimekko logo was designed by the commercial artist Helge Mether-Borgström.
1956 Exports began. International awareness of Marimekko grew significantly in 1958, when the company’s fashions and fabrics were on display in the Finnish Pavilion at the Brussels World’s Fair and in a special Marimekko exhibition in Stockholm.
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