We read in the press occasionally when there's a particular archaeological find that the discovery proves that the tribes of East many millenniums ago migrated all around the Northern Hemisphere' going on to point out that there appears to be direct links with the Inuit Indians in Canada and the East.
Do we know whether there is a migratory link between Japan and Finland?
I've spent the last three decades promoting Designs and had the good fortune to work with Marimekko as an advisor for about 5 years and what intrigued me was that there was always at least one Japanese designer working in the design rooms of Marimekko - all Marimekko fabrics are table screen printed and seen to highlight dashing splashes of primary colours.
The Marimekko trail and exposure is still witnessed in all the Crate and Barrel stores where Gordon Segal had a particular design eye which encapsulated all things Scandinavian but particularly the fabric designs of Marimekko, they've been used as in store decoration with hangings from ceilings, stauncheons together with window displays that are changed every season.
A very welcoming and uplifting first impression of the store - bright colours.
Armi Ratia the founder of Marimekko was a wonderful host and had a 'guest house' on the edge of the Baltic sea about 100 km outside Helsinki and all guests from overseas were always invited to stay at this 'guest house' where there was a wonderful greeting of blue tinted glasses with candles either side of the sweeping drive up to the house and then this magical timbered building where the dining room had a round table with at least 6 chandeliers of Scandinavian design of many periods that hung about a metre only above the table - very intimate. We were not allowed to dine until we had the mandatory sauna which was at the end of a long timbered promitory out into the Baltic and after having been 'saunarised' we had to jump in to the cold Baltic to further freshen us up, of interest the Baltic Sea in that area was salt free so a peculiar sensation.
Ritzo Ratia her son, spent a fair amount of time in the United States and befriended my particular friend Raymond Waites who had worked at Marimekko Helsinki for a couple of years but who was a photographer from Alabama. The influence of Marimekko, the camera and Duke County's wooden framed barns in New Jersey created the most fabulous mix of 'the old' with the Americana barns' and 'the new' with primary colours and all things Scandinavian from Marimekko which evolved into a quite magical influence in intereior design at the end of the '70's all of which was the brainchild of Raymond Waites and his business partner Bettye Musham Martin
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