I love textiles. I crave colorful, saturated high-count cotton-thread fabrics in my kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. As someone born post-midcentury, I'm also drawn to utilitarian midcentury design. Most fiber and design connoisseurs will recognize the bold, iconic signature flower graphic of the Marimekko company, called the Unikko or poppy, even though the founder was not a fan of the floral motifs created by her mentee Maija Isola.
These interesting historical tidbits comprise the tight, accessible and informative exhibit running through December 1 at Andersonville’s Swedish American Museum (although the enterprise is from another Scandinavian country). Founded by Viljo and Armi Ratia in 1951, the Helsinki, Finland-based Marimekko company still specializes in textiles, clothing and home furnishings.
Armi grew up in the rural Karelian region, rooted in nature and folklore. After the 1940 Treaty of Moscow, Armi lost her home in her ancestral land, so she sought a blend of history and modernism to create a new community, her brand of Finnish utopianism. Her husband had asked her to create printed designs after he bought an oilcloth plant. She eventually expanded her portfolio and started her own company in 1951. Armi’s middle name was Maria, which she shortened as the new company’s name of Mari and then coupled it with the Finnish word for dresses, mekko.
Armi asked her graphic designer friends to try creating textiles, and to incorporate industrial art into fashion and everyday objects. The first principal designer Vuokko Nurmesniemi preferred bold stripes in the 1950s, followed by Isola’s famous flowers in the '60s, a visual touchstone for the “Flower Power” generation. Future First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy wore eight Marimekko dresses throughout the 1960 presidential campaign.
The entire Marimekko workshop was powered by second-wave feminism. Not only were the company’s founder and many top designers female, but the factory also offered childcare, unlimited coffee, a day spa, and a sauna, of course. (The company also created a prefabricated Marisauna in 1968.)
The artists had input on how their designs were used, and owned the final product design once completed. Artists’ names were printed on the selvages of the clean-cut, loose-fitting and versatile dresses, clothing that the wearers “didn’t need to think about.” Contemporaneous feminist icon Julia Child was known to wear Marimekko aprons and use those tablecloths. Feminist painter Georgia O’Keeffe wore Marimekko as well. The bold simplicity of Marimekko designs has lasted over 70 years and, despite potential past closures, remains a vibrant staple of design culture.
Architect Miles Lindblad recently gutted and renovated the Swedish American Museum’s permanent upstairs exhibition, which reopened on June 1 to coincide with the institution’s 40th anniversary. The light and bright top floor shares the vibrant, streamlined story of Swedes in Chicago, in addition to their other national exports of trolls, Vikings, smorgasbords, Greta Garbo, Ingrid Bergman and Pippi Longstocking.
Swedish immigrants founded Walgreens in 1901. The pharmacy counter in the back of the store was a new idea at the time, and Mr. Walgreen added an “s” to the name to make it plural and include his employees in the brand. Wendella Boat Tours, North Park University and Swedish Covenant Hospital also have continuous and deep roots in the Windy City, along with poet Carl Sandburg and Swedish-born actor Ann-Margret Olsson, who grew up in Fox Lake. Sweden's King and Queen visited the now-closed Swedish Bakery on North Clark Street in 1988.
Radically Marimekko, an exhibit of Marimekko fabrics and decorative materials, runs at the Swedish American Museum, 5211 N. Clark St., through December 1. Admission is $6 and the museum is open six days a week: Tuesday-Friday 10am.-4pm, Saturday-Sunday 11am-4pm; closed Mondays. Don’t forget to visit the adjoining café for baked goods, sandwiches and drinks, as well as the gift shop to stock up on Marimekko merch for the holidays. Other autumn events include a farmers market pop-up on October 16, a Zoom-based Christmas foods history presentation on October 27, a Got Glogg event on November 22, and an interactive holiday craft and candle-making art event on November 26.
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