For Spring/Summer 2026, Marimekko has explored the “Art of Pattern” from a multifaceted point of view.
Inspired by the craftsmanship in the art of printmaking, the runway show was set in a former industrial site in the harbour of Copenhagen. The contradicting backdrop highlighted the energetic summer collection featuring playful proportions, balanced compositions, and Marimekko’s signature use of bold prints and colour.
The show depicted overlapping lines forming ever-changing, human-made patterns with an industrial soundscape recorded with real sounds from Marimekko’s textile printing factory in Helsinki, mixed by Finnish musician and artist YSI.
Marimekko’s Spring/Summer 2026 collection created a play between new and familiar florals with dynamic stripes in a poetic blend of femininity and pragmatism.
The collection built an energetic dialogue between pinks, greens and summer blues, ranging from peony and cherry blossom to hydrangea and spirulina, with heated accent colours of pistachio, peach and zesty lemon finalising the palette. Emphasising the mood for Spring/Summer 2026, Marimekko paired each look with contrasting adidas Tokyo shoes.
“For Spring/Summer 2026, we re-formulate some of Marimekko’s most perennial styles and silhouettes and transform known ideas into something entirely new. This idea is seen, for instance, in a new version of the iconic Marimekko Marimini dress silhouette from the 1960s, as the dress is cut in half, becoming a playful summer co-ord set,” said Rebekka Bay, Creative Director at Marimekko.
“Similar thinking also applies to the use of patterns this season; for example, by using colour to turn a floral print into a field of lemons. The collection plays with variations, where the mini contrasts the maxi, layered lightness meets with a touch of utility, and the relationship between florals and stripes is at the centre of it all.”
As part of the Spring/Summer 2026 collection, Marimekko paid homage to the seven decades of its longest-standing product that has been in continuous production since 1956: the Jokapoika shirt designed by Vuokko Eskolin-Nurmesniemi. Renowned for its genderless fit, distinct silver buttons and acting as the canvas for the bold, freely hand-painted Piccolo stripe, the Jokapoika shirt has become a design icon.
To celebrate its 70th anniversary, Marimekko brought back the original sturdy material quality of the shirt, while also stretching, repeating, and reinterpreting the classic shirt in new contemporary alterations. This includes a playful crop shirt, a large-scale print proportion, multicolour versions, and a selection of utilitarian dresses and playful accessories.
The Piccolo stripe exemplified the carefree spirit and high artistic integrity behind Marimekko’s craft, where the overlap of brushstrokes results in the birth of a third colour. This design feature is ever-evident in Marimekko’s art of printmaking.
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