All the things we do in bed with Laila Gohar

In April 2025 during Milan Design Week, Finnish lifestyle design house Marimekko and New York-based artist and creative Laila Gohar explore all the things we do in bed with an immersive experience that centers around a grand-sized bed in the foyer of Teatro Litta. The installation will showcase playful bedroom-themed items that Gohar has curated for the design house featuring distinctly bold and contrasting Marimekko archive stripes by artist Maija Isola. The Marimekko and Laila Gohar installation is open from 7 April to 13 April 2025 at Teatro Litta, Corso Magenta 24.

Bold and contrasting stripes have become an essential part of Marimekko’s design identity and a recurring theme in the design house's art of printmaking. Artists and designers continue to stretch the perception of stripes by using new techniques, implementing modern printing methods and conceptually reimagining the idea of a stripe, whether vertical or horizontal, hand-painted or composed. Simultaneously, archival stripes from designers such as Maija Isola continue to prove their timeless value through posing on fresh canvases and in contemporary color combinations as seen in the new capsule collection with Laila Gohar.

Gohar has a personal and long-standing relationship with Marimekko: When growing up, Laila’s mother would dress her and her sister in matching Marimekko clothes, which often included stripe patterns. Some 30 years later, Laila is reunited with Marimekko for a capsule collection, during which she was invited to explore Marimekko’s vast pattern archive in Helsinki– an array of over 3,500 unique prints that continues to evolve with new imaginative designs and color combinations each year. As a result of Gohar’s creative exploration, she was drawn to a selection of rhythmic stripe patterns by artist Maija Isola, ranging from dense and organic to airy and architectural. The capsule features crisp cotton pajama sets, sleeping masks and bedding, as well as timeless ceramics and more in cheerful tones of sky blues, citrus yellows, rich plum and berry reds.

“We are thrilled to partner with our longtime friend Laila Gohar for this playful capsule collection that perfectly combines Laila’s unique and beloved style with Marimekko’s universal ethos of joy and optimism. The starting point for the collection was Laila’s
maxim if it’s ironed, you can wear it out, which led us to design pajama sets that can be worn in and out of the bedroom, complimented by an entire collection of bedroom- themed items in archival Marimekko stripes. During the design process, Laila came across a photograph from her childhood, in which she and her sister are wearing matching Marimekko stripe shirts and smiling. We feel that this collection captures Laila’s effortless art of living, and knowing her personal history with Marimekko, this collaboration feels extremely meaningful”, says Rebekka Bay, Creative Director for Marimekko.