panen, who contributed the wedding
rings, lit candles in a candelabra made
of velvety matte rubber by Danish de-
signer Louise Campbell
There was more: On the couple’s
feet were shoes adapted from Camp-
er’s collection, courtesy of Spanish
designers Miguel Fluxá and Jaime
Hayón; on their wrists, corsages by
Dutch designer Hella Jongerius, a vari-
Bride-to-be Ulla-Maaria Mutanen ation on the oversized buttons that
smoothed the soft angles of her dress, dot her Polder sofa for Vitra. Guests
a one-of-a-kind cascade of winter were en route to the festivities thanks
white silk by Japanese fashion icon Dai to a snowflake-studded invitation
Fujiwara, who stood behind her like a created by Finnish graphic designer
proud second dad. Next to her, fiancé Almo Katajamäki.
Jyri Engelström and their baby boy This surreal scene unfolded on a
Eliel (in their own Fujiwara creations) recent February afternoon at architect
were seated on Magis’s Steelwood Alvar Aalto’s historic studio just out-
chairs—customized for the occasion side Helsinki, in a room where many
with the couple’s names, Hollywood- of the same designers gathered last
style, by the chair’s creators, Ronan August for the fifth international de-
and Erwan Bouroullec—and watch- sign seminar sponsored by Studio
ing as Finnish designer Ilkka Sup- Aalto. This time they had brought

Holy Matrimony!

Design stars unite in Finland for the ultimate wedding.

clockwise from top The happy couple seated in customized Steelwood chairs by the Bouroullec brothers; their baby, Eliel, wearing an Issey Miyake bear suit; a rubber candelabra by Louise Campbell

their work along, as part of an unprecedented global collaboration named “It’s a Beautiful Day”: The world’s first designer-perfect wedding.

“Last year’s seminar made me so happy,” recalled the excitable Fujiwara as he surveyed the prewedding scene, that he was moved to propose what he called “a dream for the future,” asking the designers to continue collaborating by contributing elements for a wedding, the ultimate symbolic event. Fujiwara then upped the ante by proclaiming that Issey Miyake, where he serves as creative director, would contribute the wedding costumes. When told of Fujiwara’s idea by a friend who attended the seminar, Mutanen proposed both marriage and the unconventional

wedding plan to Engelström, nodding to a Finnish tradition that allows women to pop the question during a leap year. A few weeks later, the San Francisco–based entrepreneurs—he owns a microblogging service that was just bought by Google, she’s a researcher who also runs a website for designers—were headed to Japan for their first look at the headline-snag-ging wedding dress.

Named “Kide” (Finnish for crystal), the dress is strikingly architectural; it’s made from hexagonal silk panels that echo the structure of a snowflake, a common theme throughout the wedding designs. (A version of the dress appeared at the Paris couture shows in late February as part of Miyake’s fall collection.) A hexagon, Fujiwara