Mfpen Will Open Its First Store During Copenhagen Fashion Week—Get a First Look Here

Good things come to those who wait—at least in the case of Danish label Mfpen. Sigurd Bank has been playing a slow game with his company; he doesn’t advertise, nor does he do fashion shows (barring the odd exception). This is less a conscious strategy, though, than simply the way Bank likes to do business, and it’s worked to the point where using “cult” as an adjective to describe the brand feels right.

Mfpen’s vibe is low-key, its palette muted, and the silhouettes are variations on classics—think suiting for guys that doesn’t imply “office,” loafers with a safety pin instead of a penny. The USP is that everything is made with deadstock fabrics, which limits the size of runs. Last year, Bank launched a women’s line that hews closely to the men’s, and now he’s opening the brand’s first store with a block party during Copenhagen Fashion Week.

Moving images

Photo: Courtesy of Mfpen

Up to this point, Mfpen sold through a now closed apartment store, located in a room just off its design studio. The transition from that informal setup to a proper shop wasn’t long planned. “We were headhunted [for the space],” Bank explains. “In answer to the question, ‘Did you always dream of having a store?,’ My answer is, yes, I have always wanted the store, at least for the last six months.” Located in a sort of colonnade of shops that’s central yet, in Bank’s words, “off the highway…something you need to look for,” the store is in good company: Another Aspect, Roe Studio, and Tekla Fabrics are some of its neighbors, with Toteme also moving in soon.

A vintage find

Photo: Courtesy of Mfpen

A vintage find

Photo: Courtesy of Mfpen

The space is industrial yet also warm, bright, open, and…loved. “We didn’t want to open a store at this point, but the space was just so us…it’s so beautiful,” Bank enthuses. “It felt so right—it clicked.” It’s true, the store manifests several tenets of the brand in exciting ways. Much of the decor is vintage, and the centerpiece is a restored 1950s art cabinet originally made for the model-making workshop of the Technical University Berlin, and sourced by object designer Anton Defant from eBay. The rectangular overhead lighting once hung over business desks and in an equestrian school.

Like the brand’s suiting, it’s a twist on stuffy, impersonal corporate culture. Trolley-wheeled clothing racks, handmade of stainless steel, are inspired by carts used to transport glass and art; aluminum is used for mirror frames and, carrying through on the metallic theme, the curtain that separates the changing room from the selling floor is made of silver thermo fabric, usually used in building construction. (All the metalwork is by Wendelin Kammermeier.)

Silver curtains separate the changing area.

Photo: Courtesy of Mfpen

A handcrafted wood stool

Photo: Courtesy of Mfpen

“What we do at Mpfen,” muses Blank, is “always very stripped down—not necessarily the clothing, but the atmosphere. I think the mood is a lot about the models and the lighting and all those things, but we want the clothing to talk for itself, and it’s the same in this space. We want it to be very simple, we want a nice interior, but we want it at the same time to be anonymous.” Little is extraneous, but the space isn’t perfect, and that’s on purpose. Galvanized steel shelving of the kind found in garages and galleries alike holds plastic bins that reveal their contents, for example. Softening things are oak wood stools, by Ulmer Hocker, a woodworker who uses leftover material to craft Bauhaus pieces based on original patterns. The wood art crate/sculpture comes with a provenance; it was used for a delivery to the 2021 German Pavilion for the Architecture Biennale.

Sturdy storage

Photo: Courtesy of Mfpen

It’s all in the details

Photo: Courtesy of Mfpen

Even more than the visual arts, music is the soul of Mfpen. For proof, consider this: When asked what the sonic equivalent of the shop would be, Bank’s off-the-cuff answer was a playlist, but then he came back with: “Somehow the exhibition style space of the room and workshop-inspired interior with few materials being used reminds me of the krautrock sounds of Michael Rother (NEU!, for example) or even Grauzone… This very monotone beat and slightly progressive ambient style, simple and square but still with an art sound and lots of attitude.”

A new lease on life

Photo: Courtesy of Mfpen

New beginnings

Photo: Courtesy of Mfpen

Mfpen’s new store is indeed turning up the volume on this happening brand. “I don’t feel things have changed, more that they evolve and progress,” Bank says. “I don’t mind people knowing us… it’s just at the same time, I don’t mind being in the shadows too. We’re not pushing an agenda, we never do social media ads and all those things, but it’s still nice to be known in some way.”

The Mfpen store, at Møntergade 3C, officially opens for business on Wednesday, August 7. Operating hours are weekdays 12:00–18:00, and Saturdays 11:00–17:00.