Rooted in the idea of dressing furniture rather than upholstering it, Danish designer Laerke Ryom has unveiled the Raiments furniture series at the Innenkreis, Copenhagen Gallery. The gallery is dedicated to functional artworks related to pre-1940 decorative arts. Treating textiles like garments that drape naturally over frames, Ryom approaches her designs like a tailor.
The title Raiments is an archaic term for garments, ultimately reflecting the understanding of dress as both a material gesture and a conceptual position. In Ryom’s work, the furniture frame acts as a ‘host’ that provides support while relinquishing control. This allows the fabric to drape freely instead of being forced into rigid forms through staples and tension.
The Raiments includes a daybed, floor and wall lamps, chairs, and a bench. For the daybed, floor lamp, table lamp, and bench, a powder-coated steel frame is used, while an aluminum one is used for the chairs.
The garment drapery is made of wool and hand-stitched by the designer, embedding care directly into the work’s construction. Some chairs have buttons on the underside that allow the fabric to drape over the frame rather than being permanently stapled. Featuring soothing cream and chocolate-brown shades, the exhibition ensures that the textile and frame meet as equals.
“As a host of artworks, I am conscious that staging is never neutral. It shapes how objects are seen and felt,” Innenkreis founder Zeynep Rekkali Jensen tells Homecrux.
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Ryom references philosopher Michel Serre’s notion of hospitality as mutual transformation. She tells Homecrux, “I was educated within the language of Danish functionalist modernism, where structure is often seen as truth and textile as ornament. My work suggests a shift where softness is not surface, but substance, and that textile and frame meet as equals.”
Looking like animated 2D cartoon characters, the whole exhibition feels like the pieces are wearing long gowns to decorate themselves. The Raiments is on show at Innenkreis, Herluf Trolles Gade 28, Copenhagen, from 19 March to 23 May.
