Holiday Trip: These Copenhagen Creatives Are Celebrating Hallucinogenic Plants With Ceramics
For the last few months, Casey Blond has been reminiscing about her days as a rock fanatic. The Houston native and Copenhagen transplant used to follow bands around the U.S., like The Grateful Dead, and it was this period of her life that inspired the Spring 2020 collection for Mr. Larkin, one of Copenhagen’s coolest multi-brand shops with its own in-house label. Post-Penny Lane days, Blond launched Mr. Larkin in 2007 and opened the store in 2013. It’s made up of playful, colorful ready-to-wear in exaggerated silhouettes and a mix of textures—the kind of boldly pastel hued, slightly Victorian or Prairie-esque dresses that have brought so much attention to Copenhagen street style over the last few years. But Mr. Larkin is multi-dimensional, more of an art project for Blond than a straightforward fashion concept. The shop sells a mix of clothing, accessories, art and decor, all of which she curates herself with a small team. Spring 2020 was also a personal adventure for Blond, one that culminated not only in a fashion collection but also a very special collaboration with a close friend and fellow creative.
Today, Mr. Larkin launches its holiday capsule line of ceramics created with Danish artist Maria Lenskjold. The objects, vases, and plates retail for $50 to $1000 and are available exclusively at Mr. Larkin, both in store and online. Like with her Spring 2020 offering, Blond looked to her jam band days when conceptualizing the ceramic art with Lenskjold, drawing inspiration from the Dead and their association with hallucinogenic plants. The fluid shapes of the sculptures, as well as the graphic, geometric check and squiggle lines pay homage to the visuals that can come with the ingestion of pscychedelics. Blond says their concept seemed “relevant today with the revival of hallucinogenic use these days, like micro-dosing, ayahuasca trips, etc.” She adds of the visual inspiration, “the majority of hallucinogenic species are from highly evolved flowering plants; they are beautiful. In short, we paid our respects to the sacred sacrament and spiritual practices of the plant by using the earthly medium of clay.”
Blond and Lenskjold, who have been friends for the last three years, also spoke about their shared “hippie” backgrounds when conceptualizing the collection. As Lenskjold remembers, they talked for hours, “about or upbringing, vintage fabrics, trips, beatniks and our conversation lead to the cultural use of hallucinogenic plants.” She adds, “I grew up on a commune as a kid, in a big house with pink curtains and checkered green floors with purple walls, so it was easy for me to bring my own personal experiences to this collaboration.” Lenskjold was so invested in the project, she even learned an “old technique that I have seen many hippie potters use to get the right feeling for some of the elements in our pieces.” The collection is certainly deeply personal for both women, but it’s also about finding cheekiness in art. “We included some kitschy elements to represent the Western recreational use made popular by our parents’ generation and their search for enlightenment,” Blond notes. “But we took those ideas and presented them in a modern artwork here to symbolize our generation’s use of hallucinogenic plants in order to escape from reality.” Wrap up one of the vases to inspire some suspense under the tree, and gift it to a friend whose taste in home decor lands at the intersection of Scandi and trippy.
Photo: F. Agnete Svarre1/8
Photo: F. Agnete Svarre2/8
