Ulla Engeström: A beautiful offer

January 25, 2008

A beautiful offer

The yearly Alvar Aalto symposium in Jyväskylä is a kind of a foo camp for design professionals. This August there was especially one presentation I didn’t want to miss: Dai Fujiwara, creative director of Issey Miyake and the creator of a-poc (a piece of cloth) manufacturing concept.

I had booked us hotels and all was set. Then (oh no!) little Eliel got sick.

Six weeks later at the Valve & Jaiku & Thinglink housewarming party, I met Laura Sarvilinna and Tuuli Sotamaa, who tell me this story: at the same Alvar Aalto symposium that we had missed, Fujiwara had offered to design wedding dresses for a couple who would exchange wedding vows before the end of the year.

Quite extraordinary, I agreed. But even more extraordinary was the fact, Laura exclaimed, that nobody had yet signed up to take the offer! No kidding. But wait a minute, said Laura suddenly, couldn’t you and Jyri get married?

I instantly thought it was a brilliant idea. Jyri’s birthday was a couple of days ahead and I had not yet thought about his present. Yes, that’s it: I’d propose him. Girls, I said, it’s a deal.

And yes: he said yes. Actually, he said “great idea, let’s do it”.

UPDATE: As a result of this project, my name has changed from Ulla-Maaria Mutanen to Ulla-Maaria Engeström. In the slow world of academic publishing, I'll still keep Ulla-Maaria Mutanen as my artist name.