Spend any time on TikTok trying into Scandinavian “It” woman fashion and Sophie Bille Brahe’s tremendous jewellery is certain to indicate up. Her creations exude a contemporary, ethereal storytelling that’s quintessentially Danish — a bit sudden, whimsical but minimal and uniquely her.
Not that she is completely below the radar — she has a mixture of her “dream ladies” sporting items, together with Rihanna, Madonna, Alicia Vikander and extra. She sells in a variety of well-known jewellery boutiques globally, however the model retains a nicely maintained if-you-know-you-know mystique.
That could be about to vary along with her first U.S. boutique on New York’s Higher East Aspect opening in November, anchoring her model in a market she experiences is her quickest rising. It’s a brand new chapter that has been practically three years within the making. “It’s been the correct transfer for a really very long time,” she stated throughout an interview from her Copenhagen studio. “However it’s for me, it’s wanted to be one thing the place I felt it was utterly the correct area.”
Touchdown at 1000 Madison Avenue, she is in esteemed firm, a stone’s throw from each main luxurious boutique uptown. Her clientele is certain to find her now. “I didn’t wish to go away,” she stated with amusing of the area she selected.
Sophie Bille Brahe in her Copenhagen Studio.
Courtesy Sophie Bille Brahe
By appointment solely, the shop will open on Nov. 13 with a discreet door, small plaque and name button at road stage, sustaining her cloaked attract. The boutique is located on the second ground, some extent of distinction that labored nicely for her Copenhagen flagship. “It doesn’t actually work when there’s lots of people shopping round on the identical time,” she stated of her Denmark retailer. “So, you enter a really curated, very private area,” which is precisely what she wished for her first U.S retailer.
Many stated she was out of her thoughts to not have the shop at road stage, “however for me, I feel this has been our recipe on how we do enterprise, and I really feel like we have to do it precisely how I really feel it matches the jewellery.”
Bille Brahe has been quietly testing the market Stateside for years with a touring showroom idea, displaying at luxurious resorts by appointment. “Our purchasers, they wish to have a particular expertise when purchasing,” she defined. Her boutique will probably be an extension of that idea, telling the complete breadth of her storytelling via jewellery, she stated.
Sophie Bille Brahe’s Copenhagen boutique.
Courtesy Sophie Bille Brahe
Purchasers will probably be greeted with a Dinesen picket ground setting the Danish minimalist temper. Furnishings are by Børge Mogensen — “all an elevated model of what each Dane has a reminiscence of consuming dinner on,” Bille Brahe stated. She selected an especially uncommon Poul Henningsen lamp and designed a cloud desk and a shell motif for area. “For my Copenhagen boutique, I wished it to be like a Scandinavian palazzo, and it’s the identical we’re doing for New York,” she stated, including that she selected pearly lace white curtains for the home windows, casting the boutique in a delicate gentle.
“I’ve at all times been a giant fan of Peggy Guggenheim and in her home in Venice you possibly can see footage of zebra all over,” she stated of the accents that add a little bit of zing on a Mats Theselius chair and couch, together with Poul Kjærholm chairs.
“For us to compete, it must really feel like every little aspect has been put into this area in a approach that makes full sense for me,” she defined of her world constructing. Instances will home her items based mostly on her “households” together with Ocean, Ensemble, Lettre de Lumière, Coeur, Escargot and Fleur, with a yet-to-be-debuted piece based mostly on her signature tennis bracelets that will probably be distinctive to the New York location.
As a result of the store will probably be appointment-only, visitors will probably be greeted with a considerate curation of items based mostly on their want. When on the town, Bille Brahe will provide a novel bespoke expertise, “so our purchasers can come and be part of the design course of,” alongside the creator. Bridal is a giant a part of her present enterprise; she has an unique bridal assortment that includes distinctive fancy cuts launching in February in New York.
U.S. purchasers, she stated, are inclined to gravitate to extra basic, heavier, diamond items. Bestsellers till now have been her tennis collier necklaces, with basic iterations adopted by kinds “the place it has been twisted with stone [diamond] hearts graduating in sizes” being standouts.
Sophie Bille Brahe’s items and lose diamonds.
Courtesy Sophie Bille Brahe’
Solely utilizing white diamonds in her work, she is “drawn to the purity” of the basic gemstone. “For me, there’s a very clear hyperlink between the sky and the bottom relating to jewellery. Visually diamonds remind me of stars, they’ve the identical glisten, and so they provide the identical feeling, and but their creation is so tied to the earth.”
The shop features a number of glassware and jewellery containers, too, issues she sees as “a prolongation of the jewellery and a real reflection of my universe.“
“The U.S. buyer makes use of jewellery otherwise than Europeans. It’s used to mark loads of issues throughout your 12 months life and I feel they aren’t afraid to stack quite a bit. I additionally suppose [there’s] the non-public aspect. They love that the jewellery tells a narrative,” she defined, highlighting her Lettre de Lumière assortment, “which may signify your husband or your little one. Individuals adore it.”
Bille Brahe skilled as a goldsmith, a part of an historic custom in Denmark that takes four-and-a-half years. “I wanted a craft to by some means assist my concepts that if no person favored what I used to be doing, then I may work anyhow,” she stated.
It’s a stage of tactile storytelling that comes via in her creations. She went on to attend London’s Royal Faculty of Artwork, with plans to maneuver to Paris and work for another person, however an opportunity assembly with Julie Gilhart, then at Barneys New York, modified all of it. “She was like, ‘Sophie, you’ve got a expertise, you’ve got an obligation to do your individual jewellery.’” She launched along with her Croissant De Lune in 2007 and has grown from there.
“For me, it’s by some means about really cleansing my headspace,” she stated of making her private strategy that resonates with prospects. “It’s similar to feeling what’s inside me.”
“After I look again on the collections, I can at all times see precisely how I used to be feeling in the intervening time. So it’s form of, I feel, actually private in a approach, and it’s my approach of understanding my environment.”