She was a self-avowed ‘feminist’ who also washed her hair in egg yolks and used paper bags instead of plastic ones. ‘She understood early on that everyone has to make their own happiness. ‘She had to take responsibility,’ explains Ylä-Mononen. Never having worked with prints, Vuokko agreed, and presented a bold pattern of black, white and blue stripes that had nothing to do with mosaics. Ratia was looking for a designer to copy a mosaic print she had spotted, and knew Antti had a girlfriend who was a fresh-out-of-college ceramicist. The young Vuokko had to be independent and strong, characteristics that landed her the job at Marimekko in the first place. ‘I think the death of her mother was the reason Vuokko became who she became,’ says Ylä-Mononen. As the eldest, she had to take care of her younger sister and brother while her father went out to work as a taxi driver. ‘And not just self-promotion they helped others, too.’īorn in a working-class district of Helsinki in 1930, Vuokko was 15 when her mother died of pneumonia. ‘They did so much to promote Finnish design,’ says Ylä-Mononen. The Nurmesniemis travelled the world, won prizes, threw parties, and hosted the likes of Charles and Ray Eames in Kulosaari. ‘She was the only female designer making clothing who was so famous internationally.’ Antti, too, was well known, having created the orange rolling stock for the Helsinki metro (still in use today) and furniture for the Palace Hotel on Helsinki’s waterfront. ‘Vuokko knew her value,’ Hirvonen points out. These will be a highlight of the show and will go on display in the museum’s main hall. He agreed with Charles Eames, who used to say: “Anything I can do, Ray can do better”.’ The couple had their own careers, yet Vuokko was more careful about saving samples and patterns thousands are in storage in Kulosaari, and the Design Museum owns more than 1,000 pieces from Vuokko collections. ‘Antti always had great respect for Vuokko’s creativity. ‘Their marriage was very equal,’ says Jutta Ylä-Mononen, a journalist whose biography of Vuokko was published in 2021.
They were each other’s strongest critic.’ But despite their synergy, the pair rarely worked together Vuokko had her studio downtown, while Antti’s atelier was at home, in the elegant modernist house he built for them in 1975 on the upscale island of Kulosaari. ‘Antti and Vuokko also found happiness together as designers. ‘It was more than a love affair,’ describes Pirjo Hirvonen, professor emerita of fashion design at Aalto University, who has known Vuokko since the 1990s. Her career may have had its ups and downs, but Vuokko’s marriage was steadfast, lasting from 1953 until Antti’s death in 2003.
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