Danish curtain brand &Drape has teamed up with Ana Kraš, the Belgrade-born, Paris-based artist and all-round it girl, to create a series of classically Parisian yet undeniably Scandinavian panel curtains – perfect for any discerning design-conscious home
What transforms a home to really feel like a sanctuary? As with most things, it’s in the details. A case in point, curtains are something of a necessity when it comes to interior decoration – though their ability to enhance the atmosphere or subtly accentuate space and light is often overlooked.
When it comes to finessing the art of the curtain, we’re taking notes from Ana Kraš: an esteemed artist, photographer and designer of both furniture and fashion. “I love curtains. I love textiles in spaces,” Kraš says. “They soften the architecture,” she goes on, “they diffuse and break the light.”
Photo: Ana Kraš
Kraš’s insight into the power of the curtain – and her own inherent eye for detail – has been tapped by Danish brand &Drape, as they team up with the Serbian designer, who is now based in Paris, on a new collaboration: the Frame Curtain Collection. Bridging the gap between the complex and the simple, the designs are minimalistic yet classic, with a prominent graphic effect, all made personally by local seamstresses in the Danish capital.
“As I work a lot in Copenhagen, I noticed &Drape curtains in different spaces and I liked the effect and quality. Then, when I met Nadia [Al Zagir, creative director and co-founder of &Drape], the first collaboration – which was custom curtains for my new Paris studio and apartment – came very naturally,” Kraš says of the collaboration’s beginnings. “We both loved the result we achieved in my space, and wanted to extend it and make it available for the others,” she goes on.
“This design collaboration collection is an example of how &Drape uses different, carefully curated textiles, surfaces and colours to create different moods, atmospheres and spatial experiences with made-to-measure curtains,” Al Zagir Balling says.
Photo: Ana Kraš
As the name suggests, the piping detail throughout the collection ‘frames’ the curtain, creating a new kind of interaction with the light that shines through. “I find sheer white curtains can be a little too romantic for my taste, so the piping adds that graphic feeling that makes the curtain 'harder’. It's a very small detail, but completely changes the character of the curtain”, explains Kraš.
The foundations of the collaboration were a mutual admiration and a shared sense of aesthetics, again proving the seamless overlap between Scandinavian and Parisian style. “The styles complement each other well,” says Al Zagir Balling, of the ‘Frandinavian’ similarities. “The Parisian art of making spaces look effortless and simple is a great match with the Scandinavian design approach, that seeks to combine functionality with design and focuses on creating simple lines and light spaces – both styles with an eye for the surprising, quirky or imperfect detail to create an interesting results,” she says.
The Frame Curtain Collection is now available as made-to-order, from €940