Marimekko. Love at first sight.

Last Monday (on 2nd Eastern day) we visited the Marimekko exhibition in museum De Kunsthal in Rotterdam.
I must admit: I don't like that building at all. It is so complicated to find your way. 
There are different exhibitions at the same time. 
We didn't had enough time to see it all, because first we visited the Boijmans van Beuningen museum. No on is the show with works by Rosso, Brancusi and ManRay. About sculpture and photography.

One wasn't allowed to take pictures, but my favourite of the three of them is Brancusi. His works are so intense and so about shape and meaning.
I bought the postcard with the famous Kiss sculpture which was used as a grave-monument on the Cimetiere Montparnasse in Paris.

I did buy the postcard, because I did start collecting postcards with the theme: Kisses.\
A link to that blog with the name; Duizend Kussen (Thousand Kisses)  can be found HERE.

After coffee and applecake we made the walk to the other exhibition with work by one of my favourite fashion and textile firm: MARIMEKKO.
A long time favourite of mine, ever since we went on holiday to Finland. We visited beautiful Marimekko shops in Helsinki filled with the bright and colourfull fabrics and garments. Love at first sight. 

Some years ago I was for a schoolproject in Helsinki. Ofcourse I had to go to the shops. The young women working in the shop told me that wearing a vintage Marimekko was very fashionable. I could imagine them going to search into the wardrobes of their grannies hoping to find a beautiful dress. You never throw away a Marimekko they told me. They are kept and treasured.

The amazing history of Marimekko can be read HERE.

The exhibiton itself. Not very nice presented. 2 small rooms, rather crampy. The exhibitions starts at the end, so we had to go to the first floor to start at the beginning.
It all starts with the beginning of Marimekko. Simple shapes and not very complicated 
patters. F.e. this one designed by Vuokko Eskolin-Nurmesniemi. 

 

She has also designed the famous Jokapoika shirt in 1954.

That shirt is my all time favourite to wear. I have 2 already for years.  Simple, great fabric, perfect shape and a joy to wear. It is a real classic one. Any man can wear it. Young or old and for me this is an example of real democracy of a garments.  Might buy a red one for the coming summer. 

Ofcourse there are fabics hanging.

From the simple dotts till fabrics with inspiration out of traditional textiles from Slovakia.

Most of the fabric they use is 100% cotton, but they also do wool and silk.

This one is from the 2011 collection.

Ofcourse there are series of very colourful garments. Very fashionable in the 1960's.

But next to all those vibrant colors are simple black and grey dresses.

Or these beautiful -almost Japanese- patterned dresses. One has to say that Marimekko is very popular in Japan. Probably because of the simple shapes.

Interesting are the sketches from the pattern design and the outcome of it.

I have found out that when I talk about Marimekko that people think -if they know the brand, and a lot don't- that they only do those big old fahioned shapes. The opposite is true. Marimekko is a real fashion brand with great designers and great looks and fabrics for women, men and kids.

They design great -long lasting- bags too. One is still on my list. 

Next to those items they designs items for the house as towels, cups and plates etc.

Young designers come up with new pattern designs as this one.

But the one that is still very fashionable and used very much is the one with the name Unikko (Poppy).

Designed by Maija Isola and this year 50 years old. A typical 60's print? The story is that Marimekko announced that they would never print a flower pattern. Maija refused and came up with an entire serie of gorgeous floral prints.
Ofcourse owner at that time Armi Ratia was convinced that this pattern had to be printed. An icon was born. Never out of fashion.

Marimekko. I will always love their fabrics, garments and their attitude towards the celebration of life.