The Norwegian capital has been catching up on the shopping front in the past few years, turning its stately downtown district into a home of luxury monobrand stores, and one that’s on a par with neighbouring Nordic capitals. Although a relatively small city in terms of population, Oslo oozes character, and that also shows in the local retail landscape. Situated in leafy Majorstuen, a residential neighbourhood far removed from the glitzy downtown retail scene, sits the quirky Sorgenfri boutique, gallery space and café. Founded a little while ago by Ingrid Bredholt and Vaar Bothner, two young professionals who earned their spurs in the fashion industry, respectively as a designer and model, the hybrid concept offers forward shoppers a new and adventurous retail experience.
The store occupies 90 sqm. (969 sq.ft.) set across different sections of the ground floor and basement of a listed, late 19th-century structure by architect Carl Aaman. In stark contrast with the building’s classic plastered brick façade, the interior design, a collaboration between Bredholt and Bothner and a collective of local artists, is quite the opposite of rigid lines, prefab elements and meticulous order. The co-founders’ esoteric design approach aims to enhance the relationship between the surroundings and their dreams, and runs parallel to taking on commissions to do the very same for clients in an affiliated capacity called S16. Sorgenfri has been named after its very own street address on Sorgenfrigaten, and means ‘carefree’ in Norwegian.
While many original architectural detail have been retained, interventions have been applied in an improvised manner, resulting in raw concrete walls paired with volumes in shiny metal and soft green and pink Norwegian marble. In the basement, the approach is distinctly more eclectic, and carved out cave-like sections and shiny metal wall panelling. As said, Sorgenfri comprises of a retail space, filled with a tightly curated and fashion-forward range of both new and archived women’s apparel, accessories, shoes, jewellery pieces, decorative objects, books, magazines and furniture pieces. Adhering to sustainability principles, the store offers long-living design products and one-of-a-kind pieces as a response to today’s destructive fast-fashion culture. The premises also features a café where to snuggle up with coffee, matcha tea and organic, plant-based bites, and very soon a wine bar will be inaugurated.
Sorgenfri
Sorgenfrigaten 16 (Majorstuen)
0365 Oslo
Telephone: +47 40077666
Tue-Wed 10-3
Thu-Sun 10-5
Publishers Note
Just to be clear – superfuture® is a design blog and not a political commentator. No surprise there. The scope of our content has always been global and borderless, however that can often mean covering projects in countries where we will not agree with the politics or actions of those countries. In a world that’s as screwed up as ever right now, the focus of our support is to those designers, architects and other creatives who aim to make the world a more liveable one – as opposed to people that try their hardest to destroy it. So if a project hits our desk and we like it based on its design credentials, we may choose to publish regardless of its location or creators nationality. superfuture® has always been inclusive and hopes for all current wars, aggression, violence, hate and extremism to end.
