24.1.2014–11.5.2014
There are some everyday design products and brands which become timeless classics that are renewed. This has been the history of the R-Collection brand of Finland. Pekka and Marjo Saastamoinen founded Rockseri, a family-owned company, in Kajaani in 1978 to produce the brand. The company’s highly popular anoraks and sweatshirts have found their way into the wardrobes of many Finns over the course of four generations.
R-Collection celebrated its 35th anniversary last autumn, and a birthday party is being held in honour of the event at Designmuseum Gallery. A birthday party is a celebration for friends and family. It is an occasion for looking back on the past, meeting new friends and a recalling the life and times of the one being celebrated. The present exhibition invites visitors to take a look at the passion with which this family company works and at its straightforward, no-frills approach to apparel. It tells a beautiful tale of a period of the Finnish fashion industry that has almost disappeared.
R-Collection – Party presents the history of the company through the tales and narratives of collections, old photographs and items of clothing. Of the friends of R-Collection, graffiti artist EGS, the designer duo Ensæmble and Kasino Creative Studio consider possible new directions for the company as their birthday present for the exhibition.
