Friend and loyal supporter of the store Kristoffer Dahy Ernst lives in Frederiksberg and says he seriously doubts he’ll ever want to live anywhere else. Kristoffer is a partner at the communications agency Friday, where he works strategically and operationally with a range of ambitious clients, who wish to change things for the better.
He mantra is: "If it’s not fun, I’m probably not interested."
Previously, he had his own design studio with a friend and before that he was the digital editor of Danish lifestyle magazine Euroman. Every Friday he publishes Morgenpost, a weekly curated newsletter which encompasses the best of the internet.
"I like to surround myself with beautiful things and smart people”, he says.
What’s your most important task in life for you? Both at work and outside of it.
To be kind to people around me. To pass on values like generosity, curiosity and kindness to the next generation. And to have fun while I’m here.
What’s your most important source of inspiration?
Two places: Nature and the internet. Nature because I believe we need to remove ourselves from the office environments we place our bodies in and rediscover the humbleness and the inferior power structure between man and nature. I am inspired by the grandeur of the forests, the oceans and the wild. In contrast, much of my life is also centered around a screen, which I luckily also really love. No place like the internet is such a direct source of inspiration and information, both visually and textually, and I love the fact that it connects people. I acknowledge the fact that it’s highly addictive, but do not blame social media. Blame yourself and drown your phone in the sink every once in a while.
You’ve interviewed some very interesting people through your work as a journalist. Tell us about a good and a bad experience?
The best interview was actually also the worst experience. One of the best interviews I ever did was with the German artist Jonathan Meese. He is extremely friendly and a great artist who only wears Adidas tracksuits and has an enormous porn collection. Being on the same wavelength (not regarding the porn, but generally speaking), the interview was more like a conversation than an actual interview, and we went well beyond the scheduled couple of hours. We touched upon tons of subjects and after the talk Jonathan asked if I could mail him the recorded sound file of the interview because he too thought it had been very inspiring. He wanted to listen to our conversation again. When I came out of the room where we did the interview I accidentally deleted the entire recorded file on my smartphone. It was lost. I was almost in tears. Quickly, I penned everything I remembered from our conversation but the final text wasn’t nowhere near as exciting as it could have been. I never wrote him to tell him about the disaster, and he never got back to me. Sorry, Jonathan.
You’ve been working for / or in relation to the clothing business for quite a while now. How come?
I’ve always had an interest in menswear. I don’t think I dress that well, but I’m attracted to brands and products with a story to tell. I’m a firm believer that ‘clothes maketh the man’ and that you owe your surroundings to care about how you look and appear, and I keep coming back to brands that are a part of a bigger narrative. I love the bridge between the functional and the stylish; blazers with down filling or wool coats with Gore-Tex. Brands should carry their story with pride, but never cease to research and develop materials, methods and silhouettes, and constantly make the good better.
What’s your favourite occupation at the moment?
We are currently in the process of preparing the renovation of our new apartment. It’s a large, classical apartment in Frederiksberg, and we are going all in: New floors, walls, ceilings, electricity, kitchen, bathroom, the lot. There are so many small decisions to be made, so we spend a fair bit of time discussing colours, lightning, furniture and materials. My favourite part of the project is to find inspiration from great companies such as Vitsoe, Kvadrat, Studioilse, Plain English and Farrow and Ball. Some of the websites I keep coming back to are Auktionstipset, Astrid Textiles, Bukowskis, Svenskt Tenn, Labour and Wait, Manufactum and The Apartment.
You’ve said kind things about Goods in the past. What do you think we’re doing well at Goods and why?
I think Goods carries a very well-curated selection of menswear which fits to the lifestyle of the Scandinavian male. You tap into a lifestyle with a preference for understated luxury that is easy to identify with. It’s a step above and beyond the trend confusion many of us have been through, where we buy stuff we don’t need just because it’s “in season” or “on trend,” to use two nonsense-phrases. Instead, I find that you carry items that men reach for, day-in day-out, where the quality is made to last and the fit is relaxed yet elegant. It’s more style than fashion, and I like it that way.
Would you like to recommend something? Could be anything.
Recently, I’ve been excited about: Restaurant Mangia, merino wool, Tegners Museum, the latest record from Liam Gallagher, carbon bikes, Sancerre from Sebastian Riffault, furniture from Alvar Aalto, Søllerød Kro, Aspesi blazers, pan-fried pumpkin, Polartec and the idea of going to Japan next year.