Helene Blanche X Mark Kenly Domino Tan

“Pretty colours are not always attractive or interesting whereas awkward colours and mistakes can allow room for curiosity and imagination. The working process with MKDT has been all about allowing the prints and patterns to unfold in a vibrant and artistic process,” says Helene Blanche.

In February 2017 Helene Blanche launched a new exciting partnership with Danish fashion designer, Mark Kenly Domino Tan, with whom she shares a fascination for the merging of fashion, interior, architecture, and art. This attraction led the two to spend endless hours in the archive of the Danish Design Museum looking at the bold colour stories in wallpapers from 1890-1930. 

In a collaboration for his Autumn/Winter 2017 collection and Fashion Show, designs and prints from Helene’s fabric collections such as Stitch, Plain Moiré and Moiré Stripe were combined with purpose-made fabrics to create a compelling universe inspired by the piercing photos by Lewis Hine of immigrant working class men, women and children in the 1900s. 

“Since I discovered the moirè fabric covering the piano bed at my grandmother’s home I have been obsessing about the classic fabric, the glossy shine and watered effect which gives the fabric its decadence. I dreamed about an entire moiré wardrobe and to update the traditional fabric. Therefore, it was a dream to introduce it to the Danish designer Mark Domino Tan who was also taken by the idea; to use a traditional interior fabric for fashion garments,” Helene Blanche explains.