Ruskovilla_CAT-2021-2022_ENG

ANNELI AND MAUNO’S COURAGE AND PASSION LEFT A LEGACY It all began with a couple, a van, and the will to make the world a better place with natural fibres. That was the start of the family-run company, the first to launch clothes made from organic natural fibres on the Finnish market. Forty years later there is demand for the products from countries as far away as Japan, Australia, and North America.

Photos: Family album & Sanoma Media Finland

“My husband Mauno Mattsson and I worked in an electronics company in Helsinki, but we were drawn to the peace and quiet of the countryside. In the late 1970s, we visited Artjärvi for the first time and learnt more about organic farming. It wasn’t long before we noticed that we were running an organic berry farm. My own children had already grown up, but I had heard a lot of complaints about how difficult it was to find proper wool nappies and baby clothes in Finland, and that’s where the idea came from,” explains the founder of Ruskovilla, and now the “compa ny granny”, Anneli Wahlsten . Without prior experience in the gar ment industry, the couple traveled to Sweden to study. They returned with a van loaded with used machinery and their heads full of ideas. Mauno drew the original logo, which has only been slightly

modified over the years, in autumn 1981 for the first store’s display window.

A REAL FAMILY-RUN COMPANY Due to popular demand, the range was soon expanded to include clothing for adults and children. The premises were swapped several times for larger ones near the centre of Artjärvi. “At first, we didn’t have our own patternmaker to design new products, but newly graduated clothing industry profes sional Tuula Hepola came to our rescue. She designed many of our successful prod ucts, such as the overalls for babies and children, an outdoor undershirt, accessories, and warmers. She also participated in the process to create our first product cata logues, and brainstormed the VillaVauva brochure,” Anneli remembers fondly. Today, Tuula and her family are

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