Marimekko
Mono City Unikko Heavyweight Canvas Beach or Picnic Tote Bag - Black / Off-White
- Specifications
- Description
- The Designer
- Brand:
- Care: Hand Wash Separately. Do not soak. Do not use bleach. Do not tumble dry. Iron with medium heat (300°F MAX.). Do not dry-clean. May fade.
- SKU: MM-094580-910-FJ-OH
- Material: 100% Cotton
- Designer: Maija Isola
- Dimensions: W: 21" x D: 10" x H: 15"
The Mono City Tote Unikko is made of organic cotton. The large Marimekko "M" is printed in the front. The bag has both short and long handles, and an open pocket on the outside. There are drawstrings at the sides that can be used to tighten the opening and change the silhouette of the bag.
The material is printed in Helsinki.
Marimekko's famous poppy pattern Unikko was born in 1964 in a time when the design house's collections featured mostly abstract prints. Designer Maija Isola wanted to create something interesting from this organic theme and designed an entire range of floral prints. Today, the iconic flower represents creativity.
Maija Isola's (1927-2001) remarkable career as a textile designer began at Printex, Marimekko's predecessor, in 1949 and lasted 38 years. She designed more than 500 fabric patterns, which cover an amazingly diverse range of motifs and design techniques.
Maija Isola laid the foundation for Marimekko as a print house. She lived an unconventional life for her time, painting what she encountered when traveling across Europe, North Africa, and America. On these trips, many of her patterns and colors were born.
She often worked in the evenings, sitting on the floor, and painted the original artwork across the entire width of a canvas. Nature was an endless source of material, and sometimes she even used real plants for her designs. She composed the Kivet fabric, a print resembling giant stones, from circles cut out of colored paper.
Armi Ratia, founder of Marimekko, believed that the true essence of real flowers couldn't be faithfully captured in print, which is why floral prints were excluded from Marimekko collections. Maija Isola responded by creating a complete collection of graphic, pop-art-inspired floral fabrics. Among them was Unikko, designed in 1964, which has been continuously printed since its launch.
