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A Helle Mardahl piece is tough to miss. The Danish designer renders her mouth-blown glass objects in milky pastels and juicy rainbow hues that are so cheery and so glossy that you’d be forgiven for mistaking them for candy. (One of her signatures is, in fact, named the “bon bon.”) Since launching her eponymous label in 2017, Mardahl has scooped up a global fan base delighted to sprinkle their homes with wavy dishes and sculptural cups, each fashioned in its own unique, sometimes unpredictable shape. It’s a byproduct of manipulating glass with an ancient technique, but it also has something to say about embracing imperfections. A one-of-a-kind piece has the power to elevate ordinary moments into cherished rituals, and to transform a tablescape from a that’ll do to a thoughtful decision. And it’s with this intentionality that Mardahl unveils an exclusive collection for Design Within Reach (DWR), dovetailing with the holiday season’s imminent arrival.
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Since its founding in the late ’90s, DWR has become the gold standard for shopping iconic furniture classics (see: the Eames lounger) alongside newer pieces by contemporary designers—all in the same place, and always through a timeless lens. The creative partnership between DWR and Mardahl unfolded organically. “We crossed over at Central Saint Martins at the same time,” the retailer’s creative director Omar Nobil says. They were both studying fashion, and it was a period when several Danish designers, including Stine Goya, were at the school. “There was a distant knowledge of each other and I followed Helle’s work for years,” he says. After a visit to her showroom during a Copenhagen design festival, conversations surrounding a collaboration sparked.
Mardahl’s early experimentations with mouth-blown glass began as an art installation in 2009. From there, she developed a lamp resembling an egg shape that, somewhat surprisingly, was not in the zippy color palette you’d expect. Instead: a white, aubergine, and black spotted motif. “I was super against color at first,” she says, referring specifically to one-shade variations versus patterns. But she eventually came around to the idea, and pivoted toward livelier hues. “We tried in all sorts of colors. We tried in pink, then honey. And then it just became bubblegum. It became bonbons lying on the table. It was super pleasant to look at.” And that is, perhaps, at the heart of what makes her collection so pleasurable to so many people—it simply feels good to be around her objects. “What’s so compelling about Helle s work is that it combines really traditional craft with a really future-facing aesthetic and approach,” Nobil says. “It’s also very evocative of joy, and there’s a real escapism to that.”
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Eager to bring her work into the DWR portfolio, Nobil tasked Mardahl with creating a very distinct hosting moment. “The framework we gave her was just a few words, but Helle built a sort of universe of the tablescape, which expanded into categories we didn’t even discuss at first, but are these beautiful objects that serve both function as well as the delight of looking at them,” he says. And though this collection (versus her core offering) shows a bit more restraint in terms of color, it maintains her surreal playfulness. “The extraordinary in the ordinary, everyday world is what you get from these pieces,” Nobil adds.
Mardahl echoes the sentiment. “It’s been really fun to think differently with this collaboration. To make objects that are more simple than what we usually do, but still with a twist of color,” she says. The collection includes tableware, glassware, vases, candleholders, dishes, and three different kinds of lighting fixtures.
After all these years, Mardahl still describes her process as very organic. “Everything with glass and working with glass is magical. You never know what will turn out,” she says. This element of surprise (and delight) translates to the customer experience. “When people enter our shop here in Copenhagen, they always smile, and I think it’s because all the senses are involved with glass.”
The Helle Mardahl Collection launches exclusively at DWR in North America, online and on view in select stores beginning October 14.
