modebranchen.NU NU International Januar 2020 Interior | Page 26

LUCIE KAAS SEES
INTERNATIONAL DEMAND
FOR ITS KOKESHI DOLLS
Danish design company Lucie Kaas has achieved global
success with its Japanese inspired wooden figures.
BY HELLE MATHIESEN
In 2015, Lucie Kaas founder and Creative
Director Esben Rasmussen began an exciting
and promising collaboration with English
designer Becky Kemp. She is a creator of
handmade and hand-painted wooden figu-
res. Esben Rasmussen discovered her on
Instagram and instantly became fascinated
with her beautiful, geometrical, and Japa-
nese inspired design figures.
After a period where Becky Kemp developed
her own designs while Lucie Kaas handled
production, their collaboration evolved so
that the Danish company now mostly brings
the ideas for designs and collaborations
with famous musicians and fashion icons.
Other designers also design some of the
figures.
- Lucie Kaas has a long tradition for design
collaborations and extensive experience
with licenses, so it’s a natural development
for us. And because of the rapidly increa-
sing demand, it has been necessary to also
increase the speed of the creative process
in order to maintain momentum, says Esben
Rasmussen.
DEMAND IS BOOMING
Demand has increased explosively, espe-
cially after the launch of figures designed
in collaboration with fashion brands such
as Karl Lagerfeld, Paul Smith, Marni, and
others.
- We already have exciting design relation-
ships with a range of leading fashion
ELTON JOHN X LUCIE K A AS
The Grammy-winning legend and one of the
world’s bestselling pop-artists, Sir Elton
John, has embarked on his last-ever tour;
‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road’. Celebrating
more than 50 years as a musician, Lucie
Kaas together with Becky Kemp from
Sketch.inc have designed two Elton John
Kokeshi dolls.
houses, but we’re constantly expanding and
adding new collaborators such as musici-
ans, artists, athletes, and so on. We have
figures designed to look like iconic artists
such as David Bowie and Elton John. It is
very important to us that the figures and
names we choose represent a sympathetic,
authentic story and a good cause, says Es-
ben Rasmussen who is looking forward to
presenting a new figure of feminist Georgia
O’Keeffe.
SHOWPIECES AND LIMITED EDITIONS
The wooden figures come in different sizes
for difference purposes. The largest ones
are showpieces for trade shows and exhibi-
tions, while the smallest and medium sized
ones are intended for consumers and sold
through retailers such as design shops and
department stores for instance at Harvey
Nichols. Some of the figures are produced
as limited editions in various contexts.
Lucie Kaas, whose showroom is located on
Rentemestervej in Copenhagen, is present
in 40 countries. The company will present
its newest items at Oslo Design Fair in
February 2020 and at Maison & Objet in
September 2020.