Vintage view: Finnish textile designer, Marjatta Metsovaara
This Tuesday as we celebrate International Women’s Day 2016 — it seems fitting to take a look at one of the softly-sung, female heroes of textile design, Marjatta Metsovaara (1927-2014).
Her most iconic mid-century creations are national treasures in Finland and four of the most beautiful imaginings are being relaunched in the summer by fabric house Vallila Interior.
If you are very lucky, you might even find enough vintage Metsovaara material for a single cushion, but the work is becoming rare as the appreciation for her design genius grows amongst collectors worldwide.
Metsovaara studied at the Helsinki Institute of Industrial Arts from 1949, and became a leading light in modernist pattern and colour throughout Europe in the 1950s and 1960s. Her bold experimentations won gold medals at the prestigious 1957 Milan Triennales in both ’57 and 1960.
Marjatta was one of three wildly talented women who brought Finnish design to the world stage after the war, the others being Armi Ratia (1912-1979) who founded Marimekko Oy in 1952, and Vuokko Nurmesniemi founder of Vuokko (1964-closed 1988).
The importance, appeal and positive influence of new design for the home came more slowly in Finland than it did to Denmark and Sweden.
Born in the ancient seaport of Turku, Marjatta’s early life involved a commonplace financial struggle from the effect of two world wars.
Finland was bowed down economically with reparation payments to Russia. Materials to make anything, let alone decorative pieces, were hard to come by.
The Metsovaara family was resilient, outward-looking and clearly independent and Turku was a city with a mix of goods and ideas on the move from overseas.
Marjatta’s father was Russian, a determined entrepreneur and retailer, and her mother had travelled extensively, which included a long stay in the United States.
Consequently, the young Metsovaara was surrounded by commerce and creativity, as her father set up two lean, consecutive businesses weaving, dying and selling rugs and carpets.
His daughter eagerly worked alongside her parents, familiarising herself with the production process. The move to original in-house design, informed her work and abilities as she moved onto her third-level studies in Helsinki.
Still in her 20s, Marjatta would return to her father’s factory in 1954, weaving and marketing pieces for her second attempt to set up a company, Metsovaara Co.
In the same year, she showcased her work at the important ‘Design in Scandinavian’ Expo which travelled through the USA and Canada over three years.
By 1956, she had installed two weaving machines at another premises as the supply of hand-worked pieces were being outstripped by client demand.
Industrial production at this level for a single designer was brave stuff in 1950s Finland.
Eagerly collected today, Marjatta Metsovaara’s mass produced prints, popularised by the magazine spreads of the era, are marked out above all by her instinct for colour combinations.
Influenced by experimentation while still at college, she printed not only on conventional fabrics but created wall coverings in daring materials including metals, wool, ply and the new family of flexible plastics.
Her rug design Simpukka c1962 (shell) is an acknowledged mid-century classic.
Americans might not have known her name, but every well heeled New Yorker would shelter under a Green & Green TipTop umbrella blossoming in her colour-scapes by the mid-late 60s.
Fresh, economical and trilling with joy — these patterns are newly relevant as we seize on inspiration from the exuberant boldness of the Mad Men era.
In textiles she took on jacquard successfully in the 1960s, before moving largely to printing her happy imaginings on cottons in the 70s.
Marjatta used room sets at her Helsinki company to demonstrate more immediately to customers and touring trade scouts, how her vivid blossoms and psychedelic frolics would look in a real setting.
Media coverage of her work was enhanced by the designers striking good looks and vibrant personality, but she astutely guarded her private life, which included two marriages to fellow aesthetes.
In 1965 Marjatta moved to Belgium, continuing to design her rhythmic abstract patterns and scaled up fabulous flowers, manufactured in Tampella, Finland and at a factory at van Havere, where her jacquard was produced and then imported back to Finland.
Retiring to Nice, she kept a home in Finland and passed away in 2014 at the age of 87, but her reputation not surprisingly is being reappraised and feted.
Exquisite and accessible designs by Metsovaara-Aalto, Elle, Liliana, Miranda, Päivänkakkara (Daisy) and Valmu (Poppy) are all back in production in 15 different colourways.
The new collection features rugs, kitchen textiles, cushion covers, and tote bags. Nauttia (enjoy). Vallila.fi.
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