“What I really like about what I do is that there is no logic.”
This is how Mads begins describing his work with fashion.
“Just because it has been striped, black and white, in one direction doesn’t mean it has to be striped in the other tomorrow. No one knows, and there is no right or wrong. You only find out afterwards.”
It is precisely this unpredictability that makes fashion interesting to Mads. Being curious about what is happening around you and trying to understand how it can be expressed through clothing.
“I’m very interested in what people are interested in. I’m very interested in what the world looks like and how we dress in the world as it looks, with the developments that are happening today. So, when the world does this and that, how do we want to dress for it? And can you predict it? Can we have an idea of what clothes should look like six months from now?”
FASHION, ART AND CULTURE
Mads Nørgaard’s approach to fashion is closely connected to this interest in people and the world they move through.
“I love clothes. I love textiles. I love dressing people. I love people who get dressed. And I love the differences between people.”
This view of clothing also shapes the relationship between fashion, art and culture, which has always been part of the history of the house. For Mads Nørgaard and his family, design, retail and clothing have always existed side by side with art and culture.
“One of the most successful things we’ve done was when the artist Nana-Francisca Schottländer asked if she could live in the shop window for four days. And that’s also because I find it interesting myself. I find the way different spheres can enrich each other – that meeting – super interesting.”
THE STORE AS A TRAIN STATION
Art and culture also come into play in the way Mads sees the store on Strøget. It should be a place where something is always happening.
“It maintains an image that things are happening in here, things you just have to come in and see. And that is really what I want. Because I see the store here a little bit like a train station. You just pass through, you just have to see if there’s something new. Maybe I don’t need anything, but I just have to see if there’s something new.”
That is why Mads wants things to happen in the store that people might not expect.
“If we do things that are a little ‘odd’ or unpredictable, more people will think: I’ll just pop in and see. And if we’re good at it, they’ll be seduced.”
40 YEARS AND STILL MOVING
The anniversary is also a chance to look back at the tradition Mads Nørgaard himself comes from. A tradition where clothing and design do not stand alone but respond to what is happening beyond the house.
“I’m very proud of the tradition I come from through my father and mother. Being engaged with what is going on out in the world and somehow commenting on it through clothing, design, window displays or whatever.”
It is about keeping up, understanding and taking a stand. An approach that goes back to the youth rebellion and the women’s liberation movement and continues through the house’s long-standing engagement with the world around it.
“It’s something we do because we think it’s important. And because it runs through the entire history of this house.”
But although 40 years is reason to look back, it is not the past that matters most for Mads:
“I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve done, but I’m most proud that we’re here tomorrow.”
Explore the anniversary collection here.
