Maarit Salolainen’s career ranges over 20 years as a creative director and textile designer in the international textile industry. In her latest position within the industry, from 2018 until her appointment in the tenured professorship in 2023, as the creative director of the Turkish textile mill Vanelli, she guided a team of 25 designers and engineers in the research and development of new concepts, products and collections for international design brands and interior textile editors such as JAB Anstoez, Zimmer + Rohde, Kravet, Casamance, Sanderson Group and the ROMO Group. vanellitextile.com

Salolainen’s expertise lies in the creative and technical knowledge of woven fabrics, jacquards, prints, embroideries, and finishes. She leads teams in developing fabrics for interior use ranging from velvets and heavy upholstery to sheers. Design projects include functional fabric design, such as outdoor, inherently flame-retardant, and acoustic fabrics. She designs seasonal interior textile collections both for the residential and the contract market, from research and initial concept through technical and creative development to final quality decisions and colour coordination.

“I lead by following a systematic design process from the initial concept through yarn selections and fabric construction to the final, finished fabrics. I start at a mill by understanding the potential based on the machinery, the warps, available yarn materials, and printing and finishing technologies, among others. These technological frames for design work inspire and push innovations. Sustainability needs to be taken into account at every step.”

Salolainen collaborated as creative director for the Mumbai-based Indian mill GM Fabrics in 2016-2018, guiding a team of 25 designers in developing new concepts, products and collections for international brands and interior textile editors as well as GMF in-house brands. gmfabrics.com

Before this, in 2011-2015, Maarit Salolainen was the creative director of the Indian interior textile brand and retail organisation F&F. Her responsibilities included the development of the brand and the visual profile of this growing company as well as strategic portfolio management, conceptualisation and development of the collections and research, design and development of new qualities. The fabrics designed by Salolainen’s design team are developed and produced by textile mills in India, Europe and China. F&F fabrics can be found in private and public interiors around India. fandf

In addition to textile design-related work, Salolainen has also been involved in product design projects, such as a stainless steel surface design project for Kone and Outokumpu in 2011.

At the beginning of her career, after graduating from the University of Art and Design in 1992, Maarit Salolainen lived and worked in Düsseldorf, Germany 1992-1995 and in Vienna, Austria 1995-2002, exhibiting in galleries and museums, and as a designer, collaborating with a network of European textile companies and weaving mills. Gradually, her focus shifted to industrial textile design, collection making, product portfolio management tasks, and strategic design work.

Maarit Salolainen started her career as design director within the textile industry in 2003 at Backhausen Interior Textiles, an internationally recognised Austrian jacquard mill. The three years at Backhausen deepened her expertise in woven structures, materials, qualities of fabrics and collections, as well as technical requirements for residential and contract textiles. As the head of the design team, she was responsible for researching and developing new products and designing and coordinating the interior fabric collections under the Backhausen and Wiener Werkstätte collection brand. Backhausen is well known for its Wiener Werkstätte Designs and a notable collection of further archive designs. Besides working on the Backhausen house-brand collections, Salolainen was responsible for conceptualising and designing international customer collections. The connections to high-end interior textile companies and textile editors in Europe, the U.S. and Asia expanded Salolainen’s expertise. backhausen.com

In her subsequent position as design director for the Finnish interior textile editor Lauritzon’s, a Finnish interior textile brand, editor and wholesale organisation for high-quality interior fabrics, Salolainen’s responsibilities included the development of Lauritzon’s collections and the research, design and development of new fabrics together with leading textile mills in Europe and Asia. Maarit Salolainen also developed the brand and visual profile of the company. Since joining F&F in 2011, Salolainen continued to work with Lauritzon as an external advisor. www.lauritzon.fi

 

photos: Eeva Suorlahti, Maarit Salolainen