We strive to offer aesthetically lasting designs, use long-lasting materials and craft future classics. Long-lasting products play a key role in the development of the fashion industry. For instance, doubling the lifespan of clothes can reduce the industry’s emissions by as much as to 44 percent according to the estimates by Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
Marimekko products are designed to stand up to time and use. Timeless product design is the core of our business and the mainstay of our sustainability philosophy. We aim to lengthen the life cycle of our products in various ways. The work to maximize a product’s life cycle and reducing the negative environmental impacts begins on the designer’s drawing board and material choices play an important role in this.
Our continuous collection, which consists of classic products from ready-to-wear, bags and accessories and home, is a good example of Marimekko’s approach to timelessness. The products in the continuous collection are available often for years or even decades, such as the Tasaraita (even stripes) shirt. In 2022, we also introduced a ‘Collection classics’ segment to our ready-to-wear collections, with classic products available for multiple seasons.
Finland is still an important manufacturing country for Marimekko: in our own printing factory in Helsinki around million meters of fabric is printed every year. The Marimekko factory is one of the only industrial-scale textile printing factories in the Nordic countries. Fabric printing and design expertise has always been the core of our business. New printed fabrics and the products made from them result from teamwork between specialists in several different fields, and it is particularly important that our designers are able to work close to the production facility. The overall trend in the sector is completely different, but we want to go against the trend because we believe that being a pioneer in pattern design goes hand-in-hand with in-house production. The factory also serves as an innovation hub for our key differentiator – the art of printmaking – and enables active participation in research and development projects focusing on improving of our products and operations.
