An interview with Marimekko’s CEO and chief designer

Tatler Singapore sits down with the design house to discuss its launch in Singapore, sustainability in fashion, and what’s trending

Renowned for its original prints and colours, Marimekko’s portfolio ranges from high-quality clothing, bags and accessories to home decor. The Finnish brand’s latest enterprise is its first lifestyle concept store at Ion Orchard, which sees a cafe located within the retail space. The flagship store sets out to redefine the retail experience by introducing a unique blend of fashion, home decor and cafe culture under one roof. The space was conceptualised as part-retail and part-gallery, and seamlessly integrates Marimekko’s ready-to-wear collection with a cafe that showcases the brand’s vibrant home furnishing offerings.

The launch of the Marimekko lifestyle concept in Singapore is a strategic move for the brand, as it focuses on scaling its business in the Asia-Pacific region. Tatler Singapore sat down with Marimekko president and chief executive officer, Tiina Alahuhta-Kasko, and Rebekka Bay, the brand’s creative director to find out more.

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Above Tiina Alahuhta-Kasko

Above Rebekka Bay

What is the allure of Asia, particularly Singapore, for Marimekko?
Alahuhta-Kasko: We’re very excited to expand our brand phenomenon around the world. We’re very much focusing on strategy to expand internationally to scale up our international growth, and Asia is an important geographical region. Singapore being a key hub in Southeast Asia has a very important strategic role for us. We see a lot of opportunity here, but we also know that our presence here will have a echo impact to the wider region. So we’re very excited to bring the colours and prints of Marimekko to the local customers in Singapore.

What is the brand doing to capture the hearts of Asian customers?
Alahuhta-Kasko: We’re very passionate about understanding [what Asian consumers want], so it shows in everything that we do from the collection work to customer experience to brand development work. We try to learn more about the local market and consumer, so that we can build a global a coherent brand, one that is locally relevant. For example here we have been able to introduce the Marimekko Cafe, it’s such a beautiful way to invite our customers to interact with the brand and its philosophy.

Above The space is a unique blend of fashion, home decor and cafe culture under one roof

What are the trends that have evolved and impacted the brand, and its products and design in the last decade?
Alahuhta-Kasko: Our brand has been founded since 1951 on the idea of creating timeless and long lasting design that really celebrate our unique art of printmaking. So for us, we've never been about kind of trendy fashion. We’ve rather always wanted to create designs that really stand the test of time both from the aesthetic and from the quality standpoint, that bring joy for customers for a long time.

Bay: We started out the year by exploring beautiful new scales especially we created this new version of the Unikko print by Maija Isola, which is a super beautiful mural. We developed entire new patterns that we have never used before. So there will be some very beautiful green and pink colour combinations for example. Moving into the main collection, we continue to play with the colour scale and the colouring of the rainbow. But we also surrounded the rainbow print with new prints designed by a Finnish artist who created these collages that are then being translated into print.

Above The design process of every collection begins with revisiting archival prints

How has sustainability play a part in your designs and what are some challenges?
Bay: So sustainability plays a huge part in our evolving our design process and our production process. We think about sustainability before we think design, so we start every season by asking ourselves, what can we do better? Or what can we do differently? And every new programme or every new category we add, starts with us questioning sort of all the elements in our product.When starting the design process, we give ourselves restrictions around what we can do. For example, our Marimekko Mono bags have been designed with as little hardware as possible so that it is easy to recycle or upcycle. So we have definitely given ourselves guidelines to ensure whenever we introduce a new category, that we do that in the most sustainable way possible.

What is your design process when creating a Marimekko collection?
Bay: We always start with patterns first. We look back at the at our archive where we have more than 3,500 prints. First we create a theme that we would like to show, then we refer to the archive to discover or rediscover prints. And then very often we’ll also work with print designers or artists to create new prints that can create a heavy contradiction with our legacy prints. I very much focus on our most iconic or recognisable silhouettes. What are the shapes, or what is the shape language of Marimekko with that I would like to be equally recognisable as our Unikko print.

Above Marimekko Fall/Winter Collection 2023

What products from the Marimekko line would be your top picks as gifts this holiday season?
Bay: A favourite piece would be a little bit like choosing between your children, I don’t think I’m allowed to have a favourite. But I think for this holiday season I would be gifting everyone sweaters from our ready-to-wear collection. We’ve translated some of the most iconic Marimekko patterns into beautiful sweaters and jackets, there’s one for everyone.

Alahuhta-Kasko: Well, I think that if I can say two things, maybe a dress for the holiday parties, I think we have a lot of choice in the different Marimekko prints. I would maybe recommend something in [vibrant pink tones], as it’s a very important colour for us this season. And then from the home decor side, maybe the iconic Unikko mug would be a lovely present for your friends.

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Topics

Marimekko Ion Orchard Interview Sustainability

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