The Danish family business was founded in 2017 by Helle Jørgensen, her sons Gustav and Malthe Risager, and Siri Leijonhufvud in Copenhagen. The brand combines Helle’s several decades of experience from the fashion industry with the brothers’ background in creative direction and entrepreneurship and Siri’s in architecture and communication.
— We approach classic clothing and local culture with curiosity. We investigate the aesthetics and endurance of everyday wear and experiment with the principles of traditional craft. We work to make local production more than a romantic ideal, tells Malthe Risager, CEO, continuing,
— Our foundation is our four base shapes A, B, C and D, which we settled on after a meticulous research-phase. From these base shapes, we develop styles individually to fit our permanent and flexible current collection. Instead of introducing entire new collections, we study the potential variations of each of the base shapes. These variations are based on different functions, assembling techniques and durable materials. The availability depends on the styles we select to form our current selection, which we review permanently. This flexible approach allows us to react to immediate demand while avoiding overproduction. We only stock one of each size per variation.
— Because we produce locally we also perform garment life enhancements. This entails repairing, taking garments back and making custom adjustments, says Malthe Risager.
Last autumn, Artikel Köbenhavn collaborated with Studio David Thulstrup on a limited edition collection. Today, the brand opens its new space, developed together with architecture office Archival Studies, in central Copenhagen.
— It’s a combined store and production facility. By allowing customers to follow the production process in all its intricacy, we hope to inspire closer bonds between our garments and their users, tells Malthe Risager.
— We have created a gradual movement throughout the store, co-design director Gustav Risager continues, from a simplified store experience facing the street to a complex production space at the back of the location. The production process of clothing is usually invisible to most people. But with our store, we want to take customers by the hand and show them how their clothes are made. It will hopefully provide an understanding of how certain details or choices, however minimal they may seem, are actually quite complex. By gaining this insight, we hope to create or inspire a more lasting connection between consumers and their clothes. Because they actually get to experience how their clothes are made.
— The main element in our combination of store and production is a custom-made shelving system with small garment boxes containing the clothes that we are currently working on as well as the clothes that you can already buy, says Malthe Risager, adding,
— Every garment has its own box which functions as a means of transportation, storage in the production phase, and a way to present the finished articles. A small note on the box indicates the current phase of the garment and also contains information about materials, production specifics, and who made the specific piece. You get to take the box with you when you buy a garment.
