Exciting news for Marimekko fetishists. In collaboration with Crate & Barrel, the Finnish company has a brand new "shop in shop" that opened today at the SoHo C&B location. We stopped by to take photos and learned that the two companies are also "exploring further opportunities for collaboration, including additional US shop-in-shops and ecommerce…"
The story goes that Crate & Barrel owners Gordon and Carol Segal discovered the beauty of Scandinavian modern textiles on a 1962 romp through Europe. Inspired by the form and function of European housewares, they made their way home with trunks loaded and a plan to start their own Euro-style store in Chicago. Segal says, "In 1967, we unrolled our first bolt of Marimekko fabric."
On a side note, when it came time for their son, Robert, to learn the textile design trade, it was only natural that he go to Helsinki. Marimekko was a huge influence on the development of his own brand, Unison, which he started with his wife, Alicia Rosauer, who accompanied him on his four-year stint in Finland.
Personal family histories aside, the two brands share an aesthetic sensibility, and the new Marimekko shop fits in well as a commercial mini-museum of color and pattern. The shop has a nice mix of textiles, housewares, bedding, and bags. You can also buy fabric off-the-bolt for a DIY project, or have a piece of Crate & Barrel furniture upholstered in Marimekko.
While there are other Marimekko retailers and concept shops in the US, the Crate & Barrel shop-in-shop seems like it's trying to corner the market by offering affordable exclusives and moving forward with expanded Marimekko inventories on their website and — potentially — in additional stores. Only a few of the products shown above are currently available online; look for more to come.
MORE INFORMATION
• Crate & Barrel SoHO Store
• Crate & Barrel | Apartment Therapy Marketplace
• Marimekko | Apartment Therapy Marketplace
Photos: Crate & Barrel, Sarah Coffey
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Comments (9)
fantastic!
San Francisco next, please.
HERE IS A COMMENT FROM A REAL PAINTER THAT DOESENT USE HOME DEPO BEHR PAINTS
Yayyyy!!!! I'll stop by tomorrow!
I know this may seem hypocritical, but I'm a bit saddened that they have such a huge Marimekko shop at C & B. I understand these fabrics are mass produced and many people decorate their homes with them, but now I'm afraid I'll see them in everything single apartment across the country. Glad they don't yet carry the ones hanging on my walls (but that's just a matter of time I think).
well you've got the history wrong (Ben Thompson brought Marimekko to the US to his Cambridge based Design Research...in a space that later became the famous all glass Cambridge C&B) that said, I LOVE Marimekko and am excited to she their stuff get even more exposure! (also, sorry to sound like a troll, Marimekko being brought to America is a legendary story in my family)
i vote chicago :)
I believe you have the history wrong also! Architect Ben Thompson was, I understand, the first person to bring Marimekko to the US where he sold it at D/R (Design Research) in Cambridge, MA. Jane Thompson, the widow of Ben, has recently written a book. Here is a link to the Times article:
http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/now-showing-a-look-back-at-design-research/. I think this history is important not to get wrong... My mother wore Marimekko dresses throughout the 1960's and dressed my sisters and I in hand made Marimekko dresses also - I feel a certain loyalty toward Ben Thompson and D/R and hope role he played in this retail and design history doesn't get undervalued.
I don't think the article is saying that C&B was the first to bring Marimekko to the U.S. - I think it is just describing how Gordon and Carol first discovered Marimekko for themselves (and therefore for the Crate stores). They have been selling Marimekko-designed products and using Marimekko fabric in their store displays for dozens of years, but yes, they were not the first to bring it to the states.