Shop of the Week: BLESS

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Cable jewelry from the home decor box

Visionary design label BLESS has set up a temporary home at Ludlow 38 on the Lower East Side. For three weeks, the gallery space will feature an assortment of BLESS’s high-quality, limited-edition fashion and lifestyle products from the past 11 years. Based in Paris and Berlin, the internationally-acclaimed brand has installed 19 pop-up shops around the globe, but this marks their first for North America.

Like all things BLESS, the exhibition is conceptually-driven and uniquely designed. A mix of objects from among their 35 collections is showcased in six different customized display cases. Each box of items has its own theme, ranging from a fairly straightforward home décor kit to a cheeky clothing arrangement that’s inspired by the elegant yet aloof female. A display box dedicated to women’s accessories includes the Hairbrush (one of their first pieces; 1999), the Button Pin Set (collection 18; 2002), the white Football Bag (collection 20; 2003), the 4-zipper Purse (collection 27; 2005), and Make-Up Pictures from the 2003 BLESS Beauty Products Line. The home starter kit display has everything you need to nest fashionably: we love the Cable Jewelry (electronic cables that have been transformed from unsightly appendixes to stylish domestic décor; from collection 26) and the Couple Bedsheets (a set of white bed sheets printed with the super-realistic image of a man and woman sleeping side by side; from collection 12). We could do without the Coyote-fur hammock (collection 28), but the rest of the display is pretty nifty. While there are no price tags to be found, each box is to be sold as a whole.

BLESS founders Desire Heiss and Ines Kaag are known for recycling everyday objects and using atypical materials to create products that are both functional and intriguing, and their pop-up shops are an extension of these designs. The BLESS displays were built into Ludlow 38 to coincide with the structure and existing materials within the gallery. To see one of fashion’s most innovative and provocative duos, swing by before July 13th for their stateside debut.

BLESS Shop #20 NYC
Ludlow 38
38 Ludlow Street
(212) 228-6848