Three Pots of Inspiration: vintage Vuokko, design-sparking your eyeballs, and French butter curlers.

Intensifying my '60s and '70s-inspired writings, a personal trend as of late.

Jul 01, 2024

All photographs and words here are my own, unless otherwise stated. More from the world of me and Absolument can be found in these places: Website | Instagram | Book Recs. Merci, thank you!

The mind of a visual thinker (hi!) is PACKED with photographs, colors, textures, and various oddities—both real and imagined. While Absolument is always a snapshot of what’s skipping around in my head, I want this writing to hyper-reflect what’s going on up there right now.

The first installment of inspirational pots included Ionic columns, vintage couture frocks, and oil paintings galore. Another edition covered my visual feelings during March: Gala Dalí, the theme of swirls, and vintage fashion photography with art museums as backdrops. Today, we’re running over to the best era: the 1960s and ‘70.

Three brands I have—and want more of—in my closet:

“The Rikas Ilta (Rich Evening) dress represents Vuokko’s style of from 1970s.” via TL Magazine

In the early 1950s, Vuokko Eskolin-Nurmesniemi was a young, newly-trained ceramicist who caught the eye of the founder of Marimekko and fast became the brand’s primary textile designer until 1960. For Marimekko she “created a new artistic style and designed her fabrics and clothes with bold line, bright colors, poppers and zippers. She removed all that was constricting and not necessary—to liberate women to move freely. The clothes were designed to be comfortable and sustainable.” TL Magazine emphasized that she wasn’t a “fashion designer,” but TRULY a designer. “She was driven forward by this passion and wanted to resolve technical problems in order to push her ideas further.” Even she, herself, explained in an interview that “a designer’s mission is to develop things further. It almost converges with science when it’s at its best, because then you are making inventions.” A lasting visual and craftsmanship impression is felt in the brand’s heritage, and throughout the canon of clothing design.
Just as Vuokko said it: “there is no fashion, only time.” She transformed clothing into something that’s simply forever. In my eyes, she submitted herself into the canon of design when founding her namesake clothing brand, Vuokko Oy in 1964. “When she was nominated as the textile designer of the year in Finland,” wrote TL Magazine, “the jury stated that she should have been nominated as the designer of the century.”
The Vuokko flagship store still exists in Helsinki and I can only imagine the amount of pure admiration I would feel if I ever have the chance to visit. My favorite clothing item is a Vuokko design, and wearing it transforms me into the brightest version of myself.
Vuokko at home with her husband, Antti, an architect and designer. I want to expand about their home and collaboration in another post!!!! Stay tuned.
Speaking of Marimekko…I may not need to introduce this brand. So, here’s a splash of imagery. Plus, I was bad and bought this from their summer sale this week.
Four archival images above, via Marimekko.
I own three pairs of Spain-made Flabelus shoes—a cherry red Mary Jane for around the house, a black velvety pair for the outside world, and a Basque-y-espadrille-like pair with leg ribbons that I wore for my civil wedding ceremony in France. More on that soon!!! I love the red ones so much that it’s constant a struggle for me to not break them out of the indoors-only role I’ve given them.
Maybe I need another pair?!
My creamy Flabelus shoes, alongside my friend Macy’s—not sure what brand hers are, but they are similar to my other Fabelus pair! Photograph by my friend Dmitriy.

Three designers to spark up the wavelengths of your eyeballs:

“To me, a room should be stimulating. It should sing.” Why are we not singing the name of interior designer Marion Hall Best all of the time? She was a driving force in bringing Modernism and color to the homes of Australians, and operated two design shops with a staff of women who tended to client interior design projects.
This sweet video interviewed the employees-turned-friends of Marion. I think it’s the most lovely way to get an accurate snapshot of how someone is/was. For Marion, she was described as: extraordinarily generous, rigorous, incredibly energetic, kind, striking, encouraging, confident, a lovely personality, very quick, smartly dressed, slim, probably wearing Marimekko fabric (hi, again), offered praise, had an incredible vibrancy, and “just like Speedy Gonzales.” It’s clear that she had a pace that matched her talent, and both traits worked well to help her produce a colorful lifetime of designs.
Marion Hall Best shop and showroom on Queen Street, Woollahra, Australia.
Seeing cool people like Marion posing with an Eames design, and among other greats, reminds me of how THRILLING it is to be working as the Eames Office’s Archivist!
Architect/designer/artist Hans Hollein is a person who is new to my world. He was also the editor of Bau: Magazine for Architecture and Urban Planning in Vienna from 1964-70, AND he created a slew of really interesting objects. Living in a space filled with these designs would be a bizarre treat! I also want to give a mention to the fact that the below portfolio reminds me of Archille Castiglioni’s, which is perhaps why I am drawn to it!
Objects from Hollein’s online portfolio.
Bau Magazine ephemera, thanks to ICA’s Archive.
I feel like I no longer need to introduce my long-time and all-time favorite artist, Josef Albers, because it seems like he’s so out there in the art/design/everything discourse these days. Rightfully so! He’s still teaching us so many valuable lessons.
My most nerdy collection is my small pile of various editions of the Albers-written Interaction of Color. I am always scanning bookshelves for the title because I promised myself about 15 years ago that I would buy any vintage copy that I came across in stores (unless it was like…exorbitantly expensive).
albers_foundation
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Interacting with Color: A Practical Guide to Josef Albers's Color Experiments by Fritz Horstman (and foreward by the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation’s Executive Director, Nicholas Fox Weber) is OUT and I need it. To see this new take on the color theory bible made my heart JUMP!

PS - The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation tagline always gets me feeling emotional. It’s based on a quote from Josef:

Three pieces of ephemera I’ve been captivated by recently:

I’ve been mentioning antique French butter presses in more conversations than I can count. I first spotted this enchanting kitchen/hosting tool thanks to Gohar World.
gohar.world
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I was appalled to see that they are selling them for 300+ euro (but good for them that they sell out of every drop immediately!), so I made it my life goal to find my own:

My dear friends Jess and Preston saw my public statement and were sweet enough to find me one from France for my birthday in April!11 Even sweeter because they shipped it to themselves in LA, wrapped it beautifully, and shipped it to me. It traveled round-trip to and from France just to please me and my butter-motivated heart!!! My eyes continue to be peeled because I might need to make reselling vintage French butter presses a side hustle. Good timing, because it seems that butter is à la mode right now.