It’s almost 20 years ago since Carin Rodebjer founded her eponymous brand in New York City, and ever since it has gone from strength to strength. Interestingly, the Rodebjer brand came about by sheer coincidence, as the native Swede – still a student back then – was discovered by chance by a retailer, wearing a self-made creation while walking down the street. Fast forward to 2018, and Rodebjer is now based in Stockholm, supplying contemporary and timeless apparel for today’s style-savvy woman to leading stores nationwide, in addition to a string of boutiques abroad. On the retail front, the company has alos expanded, managing two standalone stores and a shop-in-shop across town, and as of late, a brand new Rodebjer boutique in Oslo, the brand’s first outside Sweden.
Situated downtown, on a stretch of landmark real estate that has emerged as the city’s luxury shopping district, the store occupies a spacious ground floor unit of a monumental 19th century building. As neighbouring Norway has developed into the brand’s biggest foreign market, a brick and mortar presence obviously would be a legit thing to do, but the brand decided to go the extra yard, and include a showroom as well. Created by Sahara Widoff, a set designer based in Stockholm, the showroom is situated smack in the middle of the retail space. Demarcated by a suspended undulating light-weight panels on the outside and sound-cushioning curtains on the inside, it’s furnished with a table and chairs, displays, and sleek clothing racks that follow the contours of the panels, and mind you, it even has a name: Vaginan.
Yes, that’s ‘vagina’ in Swedish, and although it’s a firm nod to the Rodebjer‘s very first store on home turf – it was called as such, because the designer regarded the place as the very cradle of her brand – these days, it can also easily be interpreted as a firm political statement. The backdrop of the store is a fully understated one, featuring pristine white walls, polished concrete flooring and sleek steel clothing racks and shelving. Although an exposed ceiling full of meandering utility pipes further adds to the distinctly industrial look, carefully sourced seating items are made from wood, and lend to the setting a slightly softer edge here and there. The new Rodebjer store carries the brand’s full range of women’s apparel, accessories, shoes and eyewear.
Rodebjer
Prinsens gate 10B (Sentrum)
0152 Oslo
Telephone: +47 41106169
Mon-Fri 11-7
Sat 12-5
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.
