HEAL’S CELEBRATES 60 YEARS OF MARIMEKKO

As part of Heal’s London Design Festival activities, 17-25th September 2011 will see Heal’s celebrating 60 years of Marimekko with a pop-up Marimekko shop at the flagship Heal’s store at Tottenham Court Road and online which is part of a wider Celebration of Scandinavian Design taking place at Heal’s during Autumn Winter 2011.

Heal’s first introduced Scandinavian design to it’s customers in 1951 with its exhibition ‘Scandinavian Design for Living’ featuring furniture and home accessories from Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. The exhibition was the first to collaborate all forms of Scandinavian design outside the Nordic World. The practice of sending Heal’s buyers to the continent to visit trade shows and suppliers resulted by 1959 in the launch of the CONTex collection of imported and exclusive Scandinavian furniture. This new Scandinavian style of living furniture was so popular that Heal’s doubled it sales in less than a year.

Sixty years later Scandinavian design is still as popular and influential as ever with brands such as Marimekko who celebrate their 60th birthday this year, leading the way in innovative style with its unique and original prints. The centrepiece of the week long Marimekko pop-up shop will be the exclusive limited edition Heal’s Mistral sofa and armchair upholstered in iconic Marimekko fabric. Other products featured will include Marimekko home accessories for living, dining, bed and bath as well as gift. The pop-up shop will also provide the exciting opportunity to see the striking Marimekko ‘Scare Owl’ featured in the new Marimekko book Surrur, Make Your Own Marimekko by designer Aino-Maija Metsola.

In a whistle-stop tour of Scandinavian design, discover the stories behind some of the most colourful characters and iconic pieces to come out of Scandinavia since Heal’s first launched its Scandinavian exhibition in 1951, and find out the trends that are shaping the Nordic designscape today. Mysteries revealed along the way will include how the Danes make such flattering lighting, why the Finns will always spin the best yarns, who are the most cutting edge new Norwegians, and how the Swedes make just sitting down look so sexy.