Balancing motherhood with a career can be tough, but for Helmstedt it's the fire that fuels her work
There’s something about children’s clothes that activates an instinctive response. See a mother-daughter duo in coordinated outfits and the impact is tenfold. See a mother-daughter duo in coordinated outfits by whimsical Danish designer Helmstedt and the awwwwww impact is overwhelming. The latter is manifested in a too-cute-for-words reality, thanks to Helmstedt’s debut children’s collection, released this month via Ssense.
“It’s just instantly something that tricks every female mind,” Emilie Helmstedt says of mother-daughter dressing. “It must be something with the hormones or the endorphins, or something.” Chatting over Zoom, Helmstedt wears a plush robe of her own design, rendered in her signature pastels.
Emilie Helmstedt and daughter Blå. Photo: Helmstedt
The designer knows a thing or two about the joy of tiny clothes – her daughter, Blå, just turned one, afterall. Blå’s arrival instantly thrust Helmstedt into a league of Danish mothers who balance exceptional style, creative pursuits together with motherhood. To mark the arrival of her first children’s collection, the Danish designer handpicked a few of these women – “friends of mine who inspire me” – to model alongside their kids in matching looks.
“There are so many cool mothers and they’re just so good at working in between fashion and art and also carrying a child and having a really inspiring universe around that,” Helmstedt says, noting that in Copenhagen, it’s commonplace for women to have children very young. Here you find model Caroline Brasch and screenwriter Mona Omar twinning with their little ones. The looks are all pretty pastels, stripes and scribbles – fairytale-like. It’s all very signature Helmstedt, really.
Caroline Brasch and son Axel. Photo: Helmstedt
Mona Omar and son Idris. Photo: Helmstedt
Rather than adapt the Helmstedt universe into children’s clothes, Helmstedt has simply shrunken down her FW21 North Pole-inspired collection into exact child-sized replicas. “I like it to still have a high value of details and the same process as the womenswear has,” Helmstedt explains. She notes that this makes the price point a little higher, but insists that superior quality ensures the garments will hold up in the wash when they inevitably get messy. “You can also choose two sizes up and it will last longer, and then you can keep it for your second child.”
Unsurprisingly, Blå has been wearing Helmstedt practically since birth. She already has some favourites. “She’s very attached to very strong colours, so it’s things that have very strong colour DNA and also some fun things on it,” Helmstedt says. “In the children’s wear collection, there are small buttons with polar bears that are shiny and she just sits and looks at these buttons. She can really see that this is a small animal.”
Karoline Svarre and sons Ivan and Adrian. Photo: Helmstedt
Rebecca Leibowich and son Feiffel . Photo: Helmstedt