Above: a still life of some of my mum's gorgeous vases from the '70s,together with a vase which belonged to my husband's grandmother
(although, obviously not from the seventies).
(although, obviously not from the seventies).
In the late '70s my parents had an interior designer redecorate our house. Our family home was architect-designed in the early '60s and had floor to ceiling windows taking up at least one wall of every room. Combine that with new cream shag pile carpet, funky Marimekko curtains, blinds, bedspreads and tablecloths and you'll get some idea of the style of my childhood. My mum even dressed herself, my sister and I in Marimekko clothes... and underwear! Unfortunately I don't have any photos on hand to show you - I mean of our Marimekko lives, not our underwear. My parents took literally thousands of photos, but they are all on slides and I haven't yet been able to face the enormous task of sorting them and getting them transferred to disc.
At the time Mum also bought the a wild '70's design Villeroy and Boch dinner set "for good", and the now sought after Arabia Rustica dinner set for "every day". We ate with Georg Jensen cutlery and I was surrounded with beautiful Scandinavian design pieces. My bedside table was lime green, made by Kartell.
Although as a teenager I think I took it for granted I am now incredibly grateful for the exposure I had to the pureness of Scandinavian design. I'm thankful to my lovely mum for (amongst a whole list of other things) instilling in me a love of good design and an appreciation of buying quality. I know that it has shaped a significant part of my design aesthetic.
I had so many clothes in the Marimekko stripe fabric like the T shirt above. I wore maxi dresses, nighties, T shirts, singlets - in stripes of every colour. My collection of Marimekko coin purses (like the ones below) surely must be unrivalled. Image source: Marimekko.
Marimekko book available here. The floral fabric on the cover of the book will always say 'laundry' to me... we had the blind in our laundry made from it.
You can check out the Marimekko blog "always mod" here and the website here.
You can check out the Marimekko blog "always mod" here and the website here.
