Riitta Immonen (13 May 1918,

Ilomantsi Ilomantsi ( krl, Il'manči or Ilomančči, sv, Ilomants) is municipality and a village of Finland. It is located in the North Karelia region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population densi ...

– 24 August 2008,

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

) was a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

fashion artist and entrepreneur, best known as the co-founder of Finnish fashion corporation

Marimekko Marimekko Oyj is a Finnish textiles, clothing, and home furnishings company founded by Viljo and Armi Ratia in Helsinki in 1951. Marimekko made important contributions to fashion in the 1960s. It is particularly noted for its brightly colored pri ...

. Immonen was also known for her one-of-a-kind outfits, celebrity clients and a question-and-answer column which she wrote for Finnish fashion magazine ''Eeva'' in the 1950s and 1960s. Riitta Immonen was born in 1918 in

. A self-taught clothing designer, Immonen opened her first design boutique in

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in 1942 which grew into a success despite the shortages of the ensuing years. In 1951, she and

Armi Ratia Armi Maria Ratia née Airaksinen (13 July 1912 – 3 October 1979) was the co-founder of the Finnish textile and clothing company Marimekko Oy. She is among Finland's most famous female entrepreneurs. She was born in Pälkjärvi in Ladoga Kareli ...

started up

to sell fabrics made by Finnish textile firm Printex. However, after the firm's first season, she focused on her own Cinderella collections, and eventually left Marimekko a few years later, continuing to design clothes for the rest of her life. In 1987–1990 she was still designing unique outfits for a company named Atelierika.Founder of Finnish Marimekko dies at age of 90.
AFP via Google News, August 25, 2008. In 2008, Immonen was the subject of an exhibition at the Finnish

Design Museum The Design Museum in Kensington, London exhibits product, industrial, graphic, fashion, and architectural design. In 2018, the museum won the European Museum of the Year Award. The museum operates as a registered charity, and all funds generat ...

. She died later the same year in

Biography

*Koskennurmi-Sivonen, Ritva: ''Creating a unique dress: A study of Riita Immonen’s creations in the Finnish fashion house tradition''. Helsinki: Akatiimi, 1998.

References

External links

New York Times: Riitta Immonen, Clothing Designer, Dies at 90.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Immonen, Riitta 1918 births 2008 deaths People from Ilomantsi Finnish fashion designers Finnish women fashion designers