Mäetagused (Jan 2006)
Marimekko (Tasaraita) triibusärgi fenomen
Abstract
The article discusses the history of Marimekko, which has become a classic clothes company in Finland, and the phenomenon of the striped T-shirt marketed under the Tasaraita brand. Initially Marimekko stood for elitist designer clothes, later youth apparel and, with the Tasaraita, eventually became the people's fashion. The principles of Marimekko design are representative of their period, i.e. the timeless and simple product design philosophy of the 1950s' multifunctionalism. Festive and casual clothes were no longer designed as separate products as the same items could fulfil different functions. The aim was to provide clothing for the entire nation, though Marimekko's products did not become people's clothing at the time, as the customers of the company were mainly educated and wealthy townspeople. Annika Rimala became the head designer of Marimekko in the period between the 1950s and 1960s, and developed the brand of Tasaraita in 1968. Tasaraita was a completely unique product, since the company had not produced jersey clothes before. Rimala's aim was to design a multifunctional jersey shirt that could be worn by anyone - from babies to old people, by men or women - the design concept clearly entailed the Maoist ideology of equality. Former consumers did not associate Tasaraita with Marimekko, since its sales remained rather modest. A year later Tasaraita was relaunched, but the ideological emphasis was dropped, and the sales of the product proved more successful. From the aspect of the clothing concept, this too was representative of the shaping of Marimekko's wholesome environment. The apex of the idea of equality was the unisex clothing adopted at the beginning of the 1970s. The typical example of unisex fashion was an outfit of jeans and a T-shirt. For people, the changes in the standard of living and lifestyle meant transforming from a maker of clothes to a consumer. For Marimekko the changes stood for people's growing opportunities and willingness to choose Marimekko's clothes, and on the other hand, Tasaraita was in accordance with the renewed clothing practices and ideals. While before new items were designed for each season, the basic products, such as those of the Tasaraita brand, came to be on sale all the time, with only the colour scheme altering from one season to another. This popularisation of the basic products enabled the emergence of a line of classical clothing. The success of the company in the 1970s, brought about by the success of Tasaraita product line, may be explained by Marimekko's clothing ideology being in accord with the general clothing ideology at the time. The responses of interviewed informants clearly reveal that Tasaraita was by no means a "clothing item for the entire nation" as it has been advertised. Tasaraita's position as a political statement is also controversial. While the general opinion of older informants was that left radicalism and Marimekko were totally incompatible, the younger informants associated Tasaraita with the spirit of the 1960s and 1970s, and only one respondent clearly linked Marimekko and especially Tasaraita with political ideology. Like jeans, Tasaraita has changed from the modern and even rebellious item of clothing to a widely worn item of casual clothing. Its increasing popularity, which started in the late 1960s, also attests to the topicality of the style associated with Tasaraita. The article Marimekon Tasaraita pukeutumisilmiöna by Arja Turunen, written originally in Finnish, was published in 2004 in the e-journal of the Department of History and Ethnology of the Jyväskylä University, J@rgonia, no. 3 (available online at http://virtuaaliyliopisto.jyu.fi/jargon/jargonia/marimekko).
