Maria - MEMENTO Dress

This made-to-order high quality, reversible dress features a mid-weight, buttery soft natural cotton/linen blend with distressed and frayed seams, printed with the striking artworks of talented 19th century Finnish artist, Maria Wiik

Included with the dress is a matching clutch, fabric-matched mending patches, and a selection of 19th century inspired slow-fashion & sewing activist patches to showcase your support of independent slow fashion. These items are made from the dress offcuts and are included with the purchase of the dress ☺️

This unconventional, striking design will spark conversation, outlast fleeting trends, and remain a treasured wardrobe staple for many years to come.

One size fits most - see garment measurements below:

• BUST 130cm
• BICEP 40cm
• FRONT LENGTH 82cm
• HIP 140cm

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Maria Wiik (1853–1928): A still, quiet brilliance.

Maria Wiik was born in Helsinki in 1853 into a cultured, Swedish-speaking Finnish family. She began drawing studies as a young woman and in 1875, at twenty-two, travelled to Paris to study at the Académie Julian — one of the few art schools that admitted women. She trained under Tony Robert-Fleury, and in 1880, her portraits were accepted for exhibition at the Paris Salon.

Maria spent years moving between Paris, Finland, and artists' colonies in Brittany and Cornwall. In the late 1880s, she and her close friend and fellow Finnish painter Helene Schjerfbeck spent two formative years at the St Ives art colony in England, where Maria's work absorbed new influences — symbolism, impressionism, a deepening interest in the emotional interior lives of her subjects. In 1889, she returned to Paris to work with Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, further refining the luminous, contemplative quality that defines her best work.

Her masterpiece, Out into the World, depicted with tender drama the threshold between youth and age. It won a bronze medal at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris and was featured in Walter Shaw Sparrow's Women Painters of the World in 1905.

Maria returned permanently to Helsinki, painting until deteriorating eyesight forced her to stop in 1923. She died in 1928. Today, her friend Helene Schjerfbeck is celebrated as one of Finland's greatest artists. Maria Wiik, who walked beside her, studied in the same studios, and exhibited on the same walls, has largely faded from the story.

I hope that in wearing her image and her beautiful artworks, you too will say "I see you, Maria".

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Designed and made by Meg in The Patch, Australia.  All megsmithmakes garments are Ethical Clothing Australia accredited and megsmithmakes is a proud member of Seamless Australia.