Georg Jensen returns to Milan Design Week, serving artisanal ice cream and coffee in new silverware designed to elevate everyday rituals. Here, creative director Paula Gerbase explains the vision behind the collection and Gelateria Danese concept
At the end of last year, fashion designer Paula Gerbase was appointed creative director of the historic Danish silversmith Georg Jensen, a house founded over a century ago in 1904. Naturally, one of her first moves was to delve into the archives – and there, she found more than a few surprises.
“Of course, I expected to see beautiful Art Nouveau pieces, which I adore. I expected to find extraordinary mid-century work by some of the most important Scandinavian and Nordic artists of all time,” Gerbase says over Zoom a few days before Milan Design Week. “What I didn’t expect was a silver telephone. I didn’t expect silver lipsticks, powder compacts, perfume vials, even a silver flashlight – so many unexpected objects. There were even silver stirrups for horse riding,” she continues.
“It completely shifted my perception of the brand. Suddenly, the role I thought I had here changed direction. When an archive is that rich, when it holds so much personality, it becomes imperative to start telling those stories.”
Photo: Peter Vinther
Photo: Peter Vinther
For Gerbase, telling those stories comes with a challenge: to shift perceptions around Georg Jensen’s most essential, founding material, silver itself. Enter Gelateria Danese, the brand’s playful city-centre presence at Milan Design Week 2025. Conceived as a pop-up ice cream café, it reimagines silver not as something to be admired from afar, but as, in Gerbase’s words, “objects that honour the small gestures of the everyday.”
We are also making a commentary about how we are in the business of making beautiful objects that last.
Paula Gerbase, creative director of Georg Jensen
“It’s challenging the allergy of the disposable,” she explains. “At an ice cream shop, you have the disposable tasting spoon, you have the stirrer – like at a coffee bar – that is normally in wood or bamboo that you just throw away, and you have that little cardboard cup that then goes in the bin. So, we are actually also making a commentary about how we are in the business of making beautiful objects that last.”
The philosophy may be deeply considered, but Gelateria Danese is having fun with it. “It also has humour and is playing with turning even the most mundane moments into beautiful moments of reflexion and elevation,” Gerbase says.
Photo: Peter Vinther
From coupes shaped like opposing cones to classic ice cream cups, spoons and espresso saucers, classic quotidian serveware is reimagined in sterling silver at Gelateria Danese. It's a setting where sterling silver is not locked away in cabinets but placed squarely in the palm of your hand, slick with a lick of fiordilatte gelato. “Silver is even more beautiful when it’s in use,” says Gerbase. “We’re removing it from the untouchable perception.”
One of the most charming chapters in this new collection’s creation is the artisanal spoon series, born from a design challenge Gerbase initiated within the company’s in-house silversmithy. Each of the 22 silversmiths was asked to present their own interpretation of a spoon — a quiet act of craftsmanship that led to some of the most poetic moments of the exhibition. “We’re reviving an old tradition at Georg Jensen of crafting an annual sterling silver spoon – born from the craft and artistry of the very people who make them,” Gerbase explains. “The whole collection we’re presenting in Milan is a testament to the art and skill our silversmiths bring to the everyday.”
It’s easy to get swept up in the romanticism of it all – sipping a Prolog cortado from a silver saucer, spooning up strawberry and beech rose sorbet from a sparkling vessel. But what Gerbase is doing goes deeper than just aesthetic whimsy. She’s reminding us that beautiful design doesn’t need to be saved for special occasions – it belongs with the morning coffee, the mid-afternoon gelato, the daily spoonfuls of life.
Photo: Peter Vinther
Photo: Peter Vinther
To anchor the café in Copenhagen's culinary culture, Georg Jensen has partnered with Italian-born, Denmark-based chef Chiara Barla, whose ice cream recipes are informed by Scandinavian ingredients and her own Italo-Nordic background. The coffee is supplied by Prolog, the cult Copenhagen roastery beloved for its light-roast beans and meticulous approach.
But make no mistake — the real star of the show is the silver.
Photo: Peter Vinther
Gelateria Danese by Georg Jensen is open to the public at Via Achille Maiocchi 3, Milan from 7th – 13th April 2025, 10:00 – 18:00.