Shop Feature: CALIFORNIA_COPENHAGEN

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you based? How do you spend your days?

The name of my shop, California Copenhagen, is pretty literal, though it speaks to a little more than just my location. I live in Berkeley, California, or Albany specifically, a tiny town tucked into Berkeley, and spend a chunk of time in Copenhagen, Denmark each year. We’re Americans from the Midwest but moved to Berkeley from Copenhagen, where my husband is fortunate to maintain a professorship.

They are dramatically different places, but share some similarities. Both are progressive, innovative, a little quirky and environmentally minded. But the order, deep attention to design and human scale of Copenhagen are wildly different from the sheer vastness of California. Berkeley specifically is more eccentric and less style-driven, but also naturally beautiful, sensual and warm, with a relationship to nature that permeates everyday life.

In my shop, that contrast comes out in the architectural, design-forward pieces I find in Copenhagen versus the more vibrant textiles and curiosities I often source at estate sales in Berkeley. It’s not at all uncommon to find yourself at the estate sale of a quasi-famous professor, like the time I came home with a book haul from a pair of well-known ’60s sex psychotherapists. This gives me endless delight.

My professional background is in consumer behavior and user research, with a focus on sustainable consumption. In recent years, I’ve taken some of that thinking out of the research world and into a much more hands-on project: a community 2nd-hand market called Bon Marché, which I started with another local mother and Noihsaf seller, @momcandress. She’s a French expat, so between the two of us there is a lot of European market inspiration happening. We’ve built repair, reuse and creative projects like community dye baths, sewing lessons, costume swaps and repairs into the markets alongside the 2nd-hand goods. The larger idea is simply to make keeping good things in circulation feel desirable, creative and fun, something both my research background and intuition tell me is central to changing behavior.

Otherwise, I’m undoubtedly running around with my husband and pre-teens, attending various activities and savoring these years because the cliché about this time going fast is absolutely true.

How did you hear about Noihsaf Bazaar / when did you become a part of the community?

I am an OG Noihsaf Bazaar user!! I am the old person who says, “When I started on Noihsaf Bazaar, you had to use Instagram comments to buy cool things.”

I think it was around 2013, when it was still a tiny community. I found out about it because I was researching sustainable fashion pioneers for my graduate work. I was based in Copenhagen but had moved there from Minneapolis, and while I was back visiting, a friend told me I really needed to look into this Instagram account her friend Kate had started in Duluth. And voilà, here I am.

It has been so fun to watch this wonderful community grow. While 2nd hand has become much more normalized since then, nobody is doing it like NB. As an independent brand elevating independent brands, I love it and am your unofficial brand ambassador whenever anyone asks me where they should be selling their nice clothes.

What is your favorite Noihsaf score?

That’s a hard one, but I think it has to be a vintage rug/wall hanging I bought almost 10 years ago. I have what could be described as a bit of a textile problem. I covet basically all of them. This one in particular has such a striking color palette and pattern combination, and while I’m someone who gets visual fatigue pretty easily, this is one I know I’ll have forever.

Do you have any tips or advice for folks interested in selling on Noihsaf?

What I appreciate about the Noihsaf shopper is that they are discerning, and not in the traditional “I only buy luxury brands” sort of way. Their discernment is more about: Is this interesting? Is it well-made? Is it unique?

A lot of what I sell is from my own rotation, but if I do go looking to curate for the shop, I have a gut feeling about what belongs. The things that do best aren’t necessarily the most recognizable brands or the most expensive; they’re often the things that make you stop for a second because there’s something striking about them. Of course, if you have a beautiful babaà sweater or something from Rudy Jude, I promise you it will go fast!

The part I struggle with is photos, because some really lovely garments and especially textiles are hard to translate into pictures, and good pictures are extremely important to selling on Noihsaf. They should be clear and quickly catch the eye, and lighting really matters. I sometimes rush home in the middle of a sunny day if I know I have things to list and the light is right! I envy the sellers who are so good at this part and am always looking for inspiration from this community.

How would you describe your personal style? Do you have any style inspirations that you return to?

I've thought a lot about this, since the concept of “style” was what I ended up publishing my graduate work on. At the time, my conclusion was that developing personal style can help us avoid some of the unsustainable trappings of “fashion.” As I've gotten older, though, I've realized that probably isn't quite enough for people like me who genuinely love and seek novelty as part of their style.

Style also has to accommodate a changing life, which means it may be a little more impermanent than we think. At this point, I've been through a lot of changes in career, roles, daily routines and where I live. When I'm in Copenhagen, I find myself wearing dressier clothing and more black. In California, I'm often in cotton or wool sweaters and jeans.

I think the one consistent thread running through my style is: does it spark intrigue? It can't be too polished; something has to stand out. As I've gotten older, quality and fit have become much more central, but without the intrigue aspect, I don't feel totally like myself.

Do you have any designers/brands that you’re especially into these days?

I'm following brands less these days and becoming more interested in how things are actually made. I especially love finding older pieces from fairly mid-level brands that are very well constructed. There has been so much cost-cutting in clothing over the years: less fabric, lighter materials, cheaper finishing, even fewer stitches holding things together. Once you start noticing it, it's hard to overlook.

So right now I'm probably more excited to find a great cotton L.L.Bean sweater from 1990 than anything. In terms of newer brands, I follow the Danish scene pretty closely and am buying Skall Studio and Aiayu. Both really focus on quality and natural materials, and I've been really happy with the pieces I own from them.

What trend are you currently loving, or what trend would you like to see?

I'm loving the return to handmade + craft and the whimsy and richness that comes with it. I'm also very into the return to IRL interaction. I think all this technology and its discontents has also made us realize how important being with real humans is.

So where does that culminate? Dinner parties, with creatively set tables: beautiful vintage linens, flowers, real silver(!), plates and platters, mismatched things that somehow look fantastic together. I saw this a lot in Copenhagen last summer, including huge dinners staged in parks among people who didn't necessarily know one another. It was really beautiful and inspired me.

Vintage linens in particular have become a bit of a personal project. You can find so many incredible hand-embroidered pieces, but they're often distressed after decades of use or storage. Recently, an 80-year-old woman gave me a collection of linens that had belonged to her mother. If you do the math, these are some old linens! They were beautiful but needed some love, so I've been experimenting with different ways of bringing them back to life, including hand-dyeing them.

Favorite song to play when getting dressed?

It’s fall, so naturally I’m a little introspective and nostalgic. I’ve been playing Nation of Language on repeat, specifically “September Again” (but not because it is literally September again, ha!). It brings me back to this time last year when we went to see them at the Fillmore. Going to a show on a weeknight, I vaguely wondered if I’d feel old and out of place. Instead, I ran into a ton of parents from my kids’ school, including my son’s teacher. Apparently Nation of Language has a very specific hold on Gen X. I spent the next week googling why. Still no definitive answer.

Thanks Sarah! 👋 You can shop even more of her finds over in her Noihsaf shop!