Forssa the City of Patterns

Forssa was established around the textile industry. Swedish-born Axel Wahren (1814-1885) begun constructing the Forssa cotton spinning mill in 1847. The mill was soon followed by a weaving mill, yarn dyeing plant, and Finland's first industrial fabric printing shop in 1861. Through the age of industrial textile printing, Forssa maintained its status as the Finnish capital of printmaking know-how and design and continued onwards from the 1930s as an important part of Finlayson Co. Established in 1951, Forssa atelier hosted textile designers who created patterns of different colors and designs: stripes, polka dots, florals, abstracts, and everything in between, always getting inspired by the movements of art, popular culture, architecture, and design of their time. These printed fabrics dressed our nation, decorated our homes and spread across the border to international markets. 

Industrial-scale textile production in Forssa ended in 2009. The heritage of the textile factories is now stored in the Forssa Museum. The vast textile archive contains fabric samples, sketches, artifacts, and other material originating from between the 1800's and 2000's. Forssa Museum and the Pattern Centre tell the story of the textile community, factory, designers, and production of industrial textiles. 

The ideology of the Forssa Textile Week is based on the history of Finnish textiles and the desire to create a sustainable future for textiles.