Material girl: Inside the wonderfully interwoven world of Helene Blanche

“We did not live like Danish minimalists,” jokes Helene Blanche, one of the country’s foremost textile designers, recalling the childhood home in which her love for creativity was forged. Unsurprisingly, for a designer whose eponymous textiles and wallpaper business celebrates the richness of Scandinavian heritage with a contemporary twist, the setting for her origin story is equally ornate. Raised in a home where colour, pattern and craftsmanship reigned, the designer grew up surrounded by decadent curtains, patterned wallpapers and history-laden antiques.

“I have always felt connected to creating, and drawn to crafting, and textiles, for as long as I can remember,” Blanche shares. Her mother taught her to knit at 10, and her Swedish and Norwegian grandmothers embroidered, sewed and pressed flowers, filling the home with their decidedly creative DNA. As the oldest of four, Blanche found refuge in “the feel of the yarn, the rhythm of the needles. It was kind of my getaway,” she shares. “For me, it was never just about the finished piece. It was the process, having the yarn in my hands and creating something beautiful that could become part of someone else’s life.” This captivation with the tactile, and the urge to transform something simple into something meaningful remains a literal golden thread that has led to the success of Helene Blanche’s eponymous empire. “That fascination has never really left me. It’s still at the heart of how I work today,” she says.

Blanche’s passion eventually led her to study textiles at Central Saint Martins, drawn to the school’s “history and glamour”, and the chance to explore her lifelong interest in the history of style. “I’ve had my head in Vogue, books, and old libraries since forever,” she says. Less interested in the finished fashion piece than its making, she became absorbed in “materials and craft, the tactility and feel”, and admits to experimenting with “anything with a thread and needles”, while creating textiles used by designers such as Alexander McQueen and Nicole Farhi. “I was just so grateful and beyond excited when a designer chose to use my creations and bring them into their universe," Blanche muses, echoing her younger self. “It's the same now. I love seeing how interior designers work with my textiles and wallpapers.”

It was while studying that Blanche met Jannik Martensen-Larsen, the second-generation owner of his family's house of interiors, Tapet-Cafe. Blanche gravitated naturally towards him, both personally and professionally. “We inspire each other,” she says of the man she calls “my life partner, my husband, and the person I have built so much of this journey with”, and with whom she has three children – Barbara, 23, Silvia, 20, and Johan, 15. “We share the same love of interiors, textiles and creating things that last, but we see things differently,” she says, citing his more commercial eye. “That difference is valuable, it's what makes it work.”