The borders between fantasy and reality are quite fluid in the storybook world Emilie Helmstedt has created. It’s fitting then that her twin inspirations for fall come from a dream and the city outside her window. “Walking around [Copenhagen] every day, it kind of gets into your mentality, so it was very natural for me to integrate that in the collection,” she said, pointing to a cityscape motif featuring yellow-painted houses, spired churches, and other icons of the Danish capital that she used on corduroy and worked into intarsia knits. It’s a charming pattern that tends towards the childlike, which is a tendency in Helmstedt’s work. A wise retailer capitalized on it recently by asking the designer, a new mother, to make kids’ items.
While there might not be a direct correlation between the newfound maturity of her fall lineup and that new avenue of expression, Helmstedt moved the brand forward for fall by abstracting some of her inspirations; alongside pieces with twee hot air balloons there was a sunset and cloud pattern that was more evocative.
It wasn’t only the city that inspired this collection, but also a dream about a magical time of night when it’s possible to “become one with the moon.”Helmstedt said she took the time to “dig deeper [and examine] what happens in the mind when you are dreaming.” The psychedelic or marbled pattern that is used in the collection is actually the artist’s interpretation of brain scans. This was another smart move on Helmstedt’s part; the non-figurative design gives the collection a bit of grown-up chic without sacrificing any of the color, fun, and expressiveness that makes the brand what it is.
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