The magical story of Ecouture's new premises at Gråbrødretorv

A place finds you before you find it.

In the heart of Copenhagen. In a house dating from 1732. A new story begins – here is the story of how I stumbled upon these lovely old premises on Gråbrødretorv.

I was on the lookout for a new location for Ecouture’s dress salon. A place with life, soul and a sense of community – a bit like the one we’d left behind in Læderstræde. One day, on my way home from work, it was as if my bike turned into Gråbrødretorv all of its own accord – a place I rarely visited otherwise. And there, right in the middle of the square, I spotted the three large windows. I stopped. Looked inside. And knew straight away that this was the place.

The beautiful, old, pastel-coloured room had exactly the tranquillity and character I’d been looking for. I couldn’t imagine it being any different. In the window hung a small, almost faded note: ‘To let’. I hurried home and wrote what can probably best be described as a little love letter – and sent it off.

And the rest is history.

The premises have been carefully restored in collaboration with the National Museum and have retained their unique atmosphere – a sense of tranquillity and gravitas that is hard to find elsewhere in the city. It is precisely this atmosphere that today provides the setting for Ecouture Collective.

The National Museum’s conservators have restored the rooms to their appearance from around 1820. In the back room, the decorations bear witness to a middle-class home with ambitions – an attempt to emulate the painted panelling of the aristocracy. The painter clearly worked from what he had seen, but without access to the same materials, and has, amongst other things, used ochre instead of gold in the frames.

The ceiling may also have been decorated, but its original appearance is unknown.

The oldest layers of paint in the room date back to around 1820, and it has not been possible to confirm the existence of any older layers with certainty. The shelving units and the counter, which today form part of the interior, were moved here from Gammel Kongevej in 1936. See also pages 20 to 25 of this magazine, which feature an article on the restoration and photographs of the premises. 

Gråbrødretorv 7

The house was built after the great city fire of 1728 for the hardware merchant Peder Wiinberg between 1730 and 1732. He himself owned and lived in the half-timbered house that stood on the site before the fire, and oversaw the construction of the new three-storey front building – together with the rear building and stairwell, all built in half-timbered style except for the façade facing the square.

He was married to Martha Johanne, daughter of Claus Bysing. Later in the house’s history, another Johanne appears. Johanne Lassen lived on the third floor with her husband, master tailor Frederik Olsen Holm. And if you follow the trail a little further, you’ll also come across names such as Hansine Nicoline, Helene Hoff and Christine Wilhelmine. We naturally think the coincidence between the names of some of the house’s former residents and those of us behind Ecouture is rather lovely.

Nikoline, Nikoline, Christina & Johanne

A photograph by Holger Damgaard from the Royal Library shows the façade before the large shop windows on the ground floor were fitted in the 20th century – most likely in connection with the establishment of a music shop.

It stays in the family

And it is precisely this story that leads on to something that feels a bit like a coincidence – or perhaps not quite.

In 1953, music antiquarian Dan Fog opened his music antiquarian’s shop on Gråbrødretorv. He was renowned far beyond Denmark’s borders for his vast knowledge of sheet music publications and, over the years, built up a considerable music library. His work cataloguing and dating Danish sheet music from 1750 to 1854 is still regarded as a major and important contribution to music history, and in 1987 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Copenhagen. Musikantikvariatet was later run by his wife, Lene Fog, until 2012.

And then there’s the slightly curious fact: Dan Fog was part of my own family – my grandmother’s cousin.
My uncle, Erik Helger, worked here as a young student and helped catalogue the sheet music archives. So, in a way, it doesn’t feel entirely coincidental that, many years later, I’ve ended up here myself – and have fallen in love with this very place.

I can’t help feeling that, in one way or another, it was all meant to be.

Everyone who has visited our – small but cosy – dress salon notices the special atmosphere. There is a tranquillity in the room that cannot quite be explained, but which clearly bears traces of everything that has come before. You can sense the many layers of history and feel how we ourselves are merely a small, temporary part of something far greater.

It often makes me think about how we talk about owning places like this. Because, in reality, we don’t actually own them. We’re just borrowing them for a while. And before you know it, someone else steps in and carries the story forward. The house remains standing. And the rest of us come and go.

If you haven’t been by yet, you’re very welcome to pop in next time you’re in the area.

Don’t forget to check our opening hours.

Johanne & Team Ecouture + Hêlger Design
Johanne Helger