For the uninitiated, Marimekko sounds like a figment of cuteness that comes from the Land of the Rising Sun. The fair-haired designer of the apparel and home furnishing brand, Mika Piirainen, adds to the confusion: "Some people think it's Brazilian — like Brazilian music, because it's so colourful!"
Marimekko celebrating 50 years of the Unikko print in 2014.
And colourful it definitely is. Renowned for its unapologetically loud and happy prints since the company was established in 1951, Marimekko's products have since found their way into kitchens and closets around the world, becoming the face of fashion in the 60s with its solid stripes and bold patch of Unikko poppies. The Finnish brand's timeless prints are anything but demure, making one wonder how a country on the quiet and minimalist shores of Scandinavia, Finland, gave birth to such a brand.
Or are all the people at Marimekko just a super bouncy lot that live in eternally happy bubbles?
"We Finnish have a melancholy side," Piirainen reflects. "We have long winters with dark days, where it's 24 hours of darkness in the north. I think that's why we like the colours. It's such a contrast to the darkness with no sunshine, so we need colours that way. It's like an energy drink we give to people."
The designer who has been with Marimekko for the past 20 years explains that these pitch-black winters and their opposite of glaring summers are indeed some of the main inspirations for the brand.
A hot air balloon sporting the Unikko print.
"I think that's what Marimekko is all about. It's the contrast. It's geometric. It's organic, then it's colourful. Then it has no colours and has funny shapes, but is still practical. It's all these opposites because we have all these extremes. In Thailand you have only one season, while we have four."
Quite like brands from other Scandinavian nations, such as Sweden's Acne, the fashion sense produced by the houses of this region can be defined by its clean lines and simple silhouettes. For Marimekko, it's only logical that complicated cuts don't pile onto the loud-enough prints.
"We need to give it some space and keep it simple, otherwise it would kill the print. One Scandinavian designer once said that it is the woman who is sexy, not the dress. I think that tells a bit about our simplicity and how we think about fashion." In a region where function still trumps form in fashion, Piirainen explains why ruffles won't find their place.
"We're very functional people and we like it when things work. It's a bit masculine almost, but in a nice way. I guess it's kind of like in the milk — we've grown up with these aesthetics of simplicity and graphics. Architecture is very good around here and the glass design is very good in Finland."
He looks to his iced tea saying: "Thais like sweet drinks, but this is too sugary for us. We like more simple and salty tastes. Maybe when you come to Finland, you might feel nothing and taste nothing. It's just the different culture and upbringing."
Their culture of functionality also goes hand in hand with sustainability, dating back before green and ecological were even buzz words. Although different textiles are produced around the world today, much of it is still printed in Helsinki, truly allowing for a Made in Finland stamp on the end product.
Mika Piirainen in Bangkok recently.
Piirainen recalls: "Back in the very early days, the company wondered what to do with the leftovers from the dresses, so they made little purses for coins with it. It was in the 60s and doing that was quite ahead of the times — only recently have companies started being more concerned with producing clothes with zero waste.
"If you walk in your streets and see how much stuff they sell here, it's crazy! It's absolutely crazy! That's why we try to make shirts that can last for 50 years. We use the kind of cotton that becomes nicer with each wash and looks nice with their little holes."
Dressed in his head-to-toe look of dark blue and white shoes, the Finnish designer is not exactly colourful, but makes sure to inject the brightness into his works. Although there are almost 3,000 colour waves of the iconic poppy print in the archives, the designers, both old and new, are still busy making it fresh and relevant to a different generation.
"There's so much you can still do with it. Just changing it to black and white already makes it look so different. You can scale it differently for pots or aeroplanes. And that's just one print. We have thousands of other prints and more coming out every day. The shapes and materials change around too."
As much of Marimekko is inspired by nature, it is likely that their graphic solids and "silent" prints employing soft water colours are going to transcend the test of time. Yet, for all the innovations that must come out to keep this long-running brand alive, it might just be the children that keep the printers running.
"We try to do kids wear so the kids have memories with it. It's kind of like having a gun to your head you know? They get all sentimental when they see those prints again when they're teens and then when they have kids, they want their kids to dress like that too."
Piirainen too has fond memories of his own, long before he was personally handpicked to work at the brand when Marimekko's team happened to be watching his final student collection presentation at the Ravensbourne College in London in 1994.
"My first memory was my fourth birthday. In the photo I'm blowing the candles and there's the green Unikko tablecloth and I had this stripey thing on too. That's quite a full-on Marimekko memory already!"
The first Marimekko flagship store is now open at CentralWorld.
