Armi Ratia

Armi Maria Airaksinen was born on July 13, 1912, in Pälkjärvi, Karelia. Trained as a textile designer in Helsinki, she operated a weaving mill and worked in advertising before taking over her husband Viljo Ratia's failing oilcloth manufacturing business, Printex, in 1949.

Transforming Printex into Marimekko ('Mary's dress') in 1951, Ratia enlisted bold avant-garde artists like Maija Isola and Vuokko Nurmesniemi to create explosive, colorful, large-scale graphic prints. Marimekko liberated women from restrictive Victorian tailoring with loose, comfortable cotton dresses. In 1960, Jacqueline Kennedy bought eight Marimekko dresses during the presidential campaign, launching the brand onto the global stage.