Palmroth – A Century of Shoe Fashion

The exhibition Palmroth – A Century of Shoe Fashion presents a dazzling array of beautiful footwear and explores the Palmroth family’s 100-year journey through the changing world of shoe design and manufacturing.

In 1928, Pentti Palmroth founded a factory specialising in women’s shoes in Partola, Pirkkala. The factory grew rapidly, and footwear produced under the Viva brand soon gained a strong reputation and became a commercial success.

In the 1950s, Pentti Palmroth’s sons, Juhani and Pertti, joined the business. In 1952, Pertti Palmroth designed shoes for Armi Kuusela to wear at the Miss Universe pageant, bringing the company greater visibility. In the 1960s, the company expanded to Tampere and acquired a factory in the Netherlands to support its export business.

Palmroth’s high-quality design earned the shoes a place on the covers of international fashion magazines, including Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, making them the only Finnish footwear brand in their field to achieve this distinction. For decades, the Palmroth name has stood for quality and elegance in both domestic and international markets. Today, the third generation of the family, Mikko Palmroth and Anu Haalahti, continues to develop the brand.

The footwear, along with an extensive collection of photographs and archival materials, comes primarily from the Palmroth family’s collection and the collections of the Historical Museums of Tampere.