Days like a circus

Sirkus (Circus) design of Vallila Interior’s autumn collection has a breath of cheerful circus glamour with new spices - There is a breath of circus glamour of the past with a modern twist in the Sirkus fabric designed by Matleena Issakainen - The young designer finds inspiration in slow fusion of circus elements into part of people’s everyday life

Elements from paillettes to tattoos and skateboarding which belonged before to the wonderful world of circus have slowly and varying become part of ordinary being. The colourful Sirkus design of the young Vallila Interior’s designer, Matleena Issakainen (born in 1981), finds its inspiration in this carnivalization of everyday life. Issakainen combines in the design new and old to a new-fashioned colourful whole: ‘When I was designing this fabric I got the idea from faded, decorative old-time pictures with circus motifs, combined with daily hurly-burly and circus elements of today’s everyday life like feather ornaments and bold tattoos’, she says. In the Sirkus fabric a nostalgic trapeze artist meets a surfing dog in an old-time circus pavilion. There is a creeping tiger on the fabric edge – has the horse risen on its hind legs for fear? Issakainen says that she is very fond of the colourful design and hopes to be able to continue the same theme in the future. Matleena Issakainen It’s a long process to design new patterns. Matleena Issakainen says that she makes a lot of background work when she’s developing a new design. She enters into the spirit by looking for colour and picture ideas and thinking of dimensions. The design process is a private journey during which Issakainen experiences to create something own though the motif were common. To design patterns requires compromises concerning colours and forms so that the whole would become strong enough. Issakainen states that she wants to create ‘something really cool and smart’, keeping the customer in mind already in design phase. In designer’s point of view a design is successful when people show that they like it. Composition of the Sirkus fabric is 87 % cotton, 13 % polyester, fabric width is 150 cm. Please find photos: http://www.vallilainterior.fi/sirkus Vallila Interior is a family business established in Helsinki in 1935. Vallila Interior sells textiles and other interior products around Finland. In addition to the retail sales, the company also has a strong status in the interior design of public spaces, both in Finland and abroad. Vallila Interior also represents well-known international companies such as Designer’s Guild, that they represent both in Finland and in Russia. In 2008 the turnover of Vallila Interior was 38 million euros and it had about 140 employees.