‘Imperfect’, ‘disruptive’ and ‘unpredictable’ are not words often associated with Finnish design, least of all with Iittala, one its founding fathers. But new creative director Janni Vepsäläinen is not afraid to use all three and apply them to the 143-year-old company.
During Stockholm Furniture Fair 2024, she unveils her first collection within a former nuclear reactor in the city. It is not your average debut; London-based composer and artist Damsel Elysium performed a piece using glass ‘instruments’ ranging from two-meter-long hand-blown horns to bells and bottles, all hand blown in the IIttala factory near Helsinki.
Inside the new Iittala
The factory is a place Vepsäläinen calls a ‘Never-Never Land’ and it was ‘the final deal breaker’ in persuading the London-based Finn to leave her job as senior knitwear designer at JW Anderson and head back to her homeland. ‘I’m so intrigued by the capabilities and know-how of the glassblowers; you can get so close to the core of the material and start from scratch.’
And starting from scratch is what Vepsäläinen did. First, IIttala unveiled a new logo in a new typeface called Aino. It’s named after Aino Aalto, wife of Alvar, and pays homage to Iittala's longest-running collection, Bölgeblick, created by Aino Aalto in 1932. ‘Aino was avant-garde almost to the point of being destructive,’ says Vepsäläinen, in admiration. ‘Everything was floral and gold edged when she created her pared-back vases in 1932. You almost need to break something in order to move on.’
Did Iittala need ‘breaking’? ‘Before I took the job, Iittala told me what products would be launched in 2026. I thought “Oh My God, it's too slow!” In my previous roles (at Givenchy, Alexander McQueen, Simone Rocha and The Row) I used to produce nine collections a year.’ Among them was that JW Anderson patchwork cardigan, worn by Harry Styles during lockdown. It went viral and is now part of the Victoria and Albert Museum archive.
'Don't forget to play': Iittala icons in pas
Debuting alongside the performance in Stockholm is Play, a colour-soaked collection of tableware, tablecloths, tea towels, blankets and cushion covers. It takes its name from Alvar Aalto’s famous saying: ‘don’t forget to play’, and caters to modern rituals and dining habits.
‘We need to get off the table surface,’ says Vepsäläinen. ‘How many times do we actually eat at a table now? What kind of stuff do we use? The Play pieces are multifunctional items to be shared and loved.’ There are some reworked classics in there too. The Aalto Savoy vase, (‘Iittala’s Birkin Bag, its Crown Jewels’) appears in new lilac glass and three birds, by the late Oiva Toikka, appear in Play’s pastel palette.
Vepsäläinen brings fashion flair honed at the best houses, and a global outlook. And she not the only fashion designer to join the mother company Fiskars of late. In September, Jasper Toron Nielsen (formerly of Tom Ford, Givenchy and Burberry) stepped in as creative director at Royal Copenhagen.
‘Fashion brands have been excellent at creating emotional connections with consumers and new audiences,’ says Vepsäläinen. ‘Scandinavian style has got a bit stuck in a design language that is quite controlled,’ she adds. ‘Sometimes perfectionism cannot be a good master. You need to let loose a little bit. There's so much more to explore. We need to be more experimental.’
