H55 & the Linen Line 70 Years: a milestone in Swedish design history

In the summer of 2025, it will be 70 years since the Helsingborg exhibition H55 showcased to the world a future filled with color, function, and design awareness. Postwar Sweden experienced a turning point in design history with the H55 housing fair, where patterned linen towels and bold colors transformed the role of the home—thanks to NK’s Textile Chamber and Almedahls.

When H55 opened in 1955, everyday life was revitalized after years of wartime austerity and material shortages. It was then that Swedish textile design made its true breakthrough, with the Linnelinjen (Linen Line) as a leading force in this development.

The Linnelinjen, and the textile revolution of the 1950s

The Linnelinjen was a collaboration between NK’s Textile Chamber, led by Astrid Sampe, and the weaving mill Almedahls. It featured linen-based textiles—a material deeply rooted in Swedish tradition but now presented in an entirely new form: graphic prints, bold colors, and playful designs. It was a deliberate shift away from the gray and utilitarian toward a vibrant and design-conscious everyday life.

Designers created patterns in which everyday objects like herring, spices, and kitchen utensils were turned into decorative motifs—not to hide the reality of domestic work, but to elevate it. With Almedahls’ industrial capacity, these patterns could be produced on a large scale without compromising artistic integrity.

The gångehandduk – a design for the modern home

The gånge tea towel was introduced in the Linnelinjen’s first collection at H55.

It was practical in form—long enough to be fastened in the belt (the “svångrem”) so that the user always had it close at hand by the sink or stove. But it was also ideological in function. During the 1950s, domestic labor was being renegotiated: men were increasingly expected to participate in household tasks. The tea towel, therefore, was not aimed solely at women, but was designed to suit male users as well—in length, functionality, and style.

The design thus reflected not only a visual language but also a societal change. It signaled a new era, where the kitchen was a place of shared responsibility, and where textiles were no longer hidden tools but visible expressions of modernity.

The gångehandduk became a central product in the Linnelinjen’s development, which continued to expand with new patterns and textiles throughout the rest of the 1950s and up until 1970—always with the same ambition: to unite function, aesthetics, and the ideology of the Swedish welfare state (folkhemmet).

Persons kryddskåp and Sill - a design language for the welfare home

In NK’s Textile Chamber booth at H55, several of Almedahls’ patterns that came to define the Linnelinjen were on display. One that drew particular attention was Persons kryddskåp (Person’s spice cabinet), inspired by Signe Persson-Melin’s stoneware jars—also featured in the exhibition. The pattern highlighted the jars in a graphic design language where words and form interacted.

Another example was Sillsexa (later simply Sill, or “Herring”), a pattern filled with bottles, herring pieces, eggs, and cutlery. With its humorous style, it captured something deeply Swedish—the soul of the smorgasbord in printed textile form—while also reflecting the new ideal: that good design should be found in every home, even on the kitchen towel.

The breakthrough of color – and textile as a carrier of hope

Perhaps the most striking aspect of Almedahls’ tea towels at H55 was the explosive use of color. After the somber tones of the war years, color and pattern became a kind of cultural healing. Being met by lemon yellow, cornflower blue, and tomato red in household textiles was not just an aesthetic experience -it was a message: the future is bright, and it begins in the kitchen.

H55 thus became not only an international design exhibition but also a kind of national restart. And in this movement, textile played a larger role than previously understood. It was democratic, accessible, and visually powerful -and thanks to companies like NK’s Textile Chamber and Almedahls, along with many talented designers, this could spread to ordinary homes across the country.

The legacy of H55 lives on

Today, several of the patterns from H55 and the Linnelinjen remain in production, not least thanks to Almedahls’ reissues. Patterns like Sill and Persons kryddskåp still adorn kitchen tea towels, trays, and aprons -not out of nostalgia, but because they continue to speak to us with clarity, humor, and humanism.

The language of design has changed, but the vision of a more beautiful everyday life remains—and for many, it began right there: in the kitchen, with a gångehandduk tucked into the belt.