A Study of Riitta Immonen’s Creations in the Finnish
Fashion House Tradition
Doctoral Dissertation
Creating a Unique Dress is a multimethod case study which investigates high quality dressmaking in the Finnish fashion house tradition. The designing, making and using of unique dresses are approached through a case history of one designer, Riitta Immonen; creation processes, products, and clients’ conceptions. The creation of unique dresses is investigated in relation to three background frameworks: fashion, haute couture, and craft. This study aims to illuminate the differences and similarities between unique dressmaking in Finland and French haute couture, and to understand conceptually and historically the creation and use of individual, handcrafted clothes.
Within a case study strategy, multiple methodological solutions function in triangulation to validate each other. A biographical study of the designer offers a spatio-temporal context. Creation is studied through a craft process analysis. The artifact analysis combines the study of construction, aesthetics and meanings of dresses. The conceptualization of clients’ conceptions follows grounded theory principles. The researcher’s participation in the making of designed dresses and embroideries is employed both in order to reach the tacit knowledge involved in the studied processes and to use it to complement propositional knowledge.
Professionally Riitta Immonen entered the field of fashion in 1942. Her breakthrough occurred during the postwar years when her innovative use of local materials in a fashionable context decisively contributed to solving everyday clothing problems due to shortage and limited import. The heyday of her fashion salon was in the fifties and sixties. This period of time also coincides with her numerous other activities, such as having her own column in a magazine, semi-industrial design, and designing uniforms. From the years 1968 to 1985, Riitta Immonen designed a boutique line in her own name. After closing her enterprise in 1985 she designed for two other enterprises; first short series for one, and then unique dresses for another.
The designing and making-up process of unique dresses is an open-ended developmental project. The designer primarily focuses on the use, aesthetics and construction methods of a dress. Aimed at individuality and beauty, the dresses also correspond to cultural and intercultural requirements and needs of the wearers. Sketches have an ephemeral, communicative role in the initial phase of designing, as precision and detailing continue throughout the alternating designing and sewing process.
Dresses have been created on the commission of a client and for fashion showings throughout the studied career. The latter mode of designing is particularly significant for free experimentation and the public presentation of the designer’s personal style.
The wearability and aesthetics of the investigated dresses, suits and coats are based on the high quality of materials, a relatively simple or seemingly simple cut, minute fitting, and skillfully crafted delightful details. While the production methods have slightly changed over time, the designing system and attention to uncompromised craftsmanship have remained unchanged.
From the clients’ point of view, the creation of unique dresses is characterized by: immediate interaction between the designer and the client, individuality, personal aesthetics, confidence, discretion, telesis extension, integrated quality, and comprehensive service. The immediacy is central in the studied phenomenon and entails an emphasized consciousness of the designer’s personality and her affect beyond the actual designing of a dress. In this study, fashion appears as a stage of individuality and aesthetics rather than quick change. The designer relinquishes her former ideas and creates new ones; thus she expresses the spirit of time and also becomes an agent of change. However, the timeless wearability, gained in the pursuit of individuality and harmonious beauty, is a generally recognized quality of the dresses from the clients’ point of view.
Immediate interaction between the designer and a client in the creation process and the absolute uniqueness of a dress are central to the Finnish form of unique dress creation. These notions differ from haute couture, whereas materials, craftsmanship, and coming out by presenting collections are similar to haute couture.
Keywords: fashion, haute couture, craft, design, dress, dressmaking, case study
A hard back publication in English from Akatiimi Oy, about 300 pages with 61 illustrations.
Ritva Koskennurmi-Sivonen
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