Danish textile label Tekla’s serene, considered vision of domesticity is largely derived from founder and creative director Charlie Hedin’s own aesthetic fixations, which centre around contemporary architecture and design – European modernists Alvar Aalto, Mies van der Rohe and Axel Vervoordt have all been noted by Hedin as prescient reference points for the Copenhagen-based label’s designs, which span sleepwear, bedding and bathroom textiles. Recent collaborations have included a collection of hand-woven mohair blankets created alongside Les Couleurs Suisse AG – inspired by the custom colours used by Le Corbusier – and John Pawson, who has united with Tekla on a number of pieces inspired by his own Oxfordshire home.
It is little wonder, then, that Hedin – who founded Tekla in 2017 alongside now managing director Kristoffer Juhl – has relished the task of building a physical home for the label with its first-ever retail store, opening in Copenhagen today (22 April 2023). Speaking earlier in the week at a tour of the space on Vognmagergade in the city’s historic Old Town, Hedin and Juhl both say that a store was on the cards since Tekla’s beginnings, though it was the brand’s rapid success during the pandemic – as people bedded down at home and sought to improve their then-all-encompassing domestic spaces – that allowed them to create what they hope is the first in a series of international bases for the label.
