Sometimes all you need to elevate an old staple is a new material. For its celebratory Danish-style ice-cream shop, opening as part of the Capsule Plaza showcase, Georg Jensen has reimagined items such as the traditional paper cup in sterling silver with accompanying glassware.

The Milanese are famous for indulging in the art of respite. Even during Salone del Mobile, one of the city’s busiest weeks, postprandial passeggiate or gelato breaks are commonplace. 

In this spirit, heritage design house Georg Jensen is opening a gelateria danese (Danish ice-cream shop) as part of this year’s Capsule Plaza showcase at the Spazio Maiocchi gallery in Porta Venezia. To bring a Danish touch to proceedings, the brand has enlisted Chiara Barla from popular Copenhagen bakery Apotek 57 to devise the gelato flavours and the team behind Prolog Coffee (a favourite spot in the Danish capital’s Meatpacking District) to provide the beans, which will be served in Georg Jensen’s new line of silver coffee cups and glasses.  

“It’s interesting to put silver into practice rather than keeping it on shelves, to be handled with white gloves on special occasions,” Paula Gerbase, Georg Jensen’s Brazilian-born creative director, tells Monocle. “We want to bring a little bit of lightness to a material that can sometimes be perceived as untouchable.” 

The ice-cream kiosk will be the launch pad for Gerbase’s first collection for the house. Since joining last year, she has focused on the reissuing of archival pieces and for her debut, she opted for light-hearted, witty designs: cups, glasses for affogatos, stirrers and more unexpected items, including an ashtray and a popsicle stick, have all been rendered in fine silver by Georg Jensen’s in-house silversmiths. 

“It’s a comment on the ability of objects to elevate any mundane moment,” says Gerbase. By upgrading the choice of material, the familiar idea of the disposable paper ice-cream cup is flipped on its head and turned into something to be cherished, to be reused again and again.

For the occasion, a longstanding Georg Jensen tradition of crafting an annual sterling-silver spoon was revived, with Gerbase putting forward a competition to design a coffee spoon. Two designs came out on top: one by a master who has been with Georg Jensen for 12 years and another by an apprentice who only joined the company a couple of months ago. “We wanted to open up the design process to those who know the material best,” says Gerbase.

Prior to her appointment as creative director of Georg Jensen, Gerbase trained as a tailor on London’s Savile Row and went on to become artistic director at the British luxury shoe brand John Lobb. As a transplant from the fashion industry, she brings a fresh pair of eyes to a Danish house that boasts more than 120 years of history. “It felt like a natural transition. I’ve always been compelled by the tension between modernity and heritage,” she says. “[I like to] redefine the values of a house by finding elements of history that are actually rooted in moving forward and modernity.”

Gerbase is not the only fashion insider making the move to design. Janni Vepsäläinen is now at the creative helm of Finnish company Iittala after working in-house at JW Anderson; while former Balmain executives Emmanuel Diemoz and Antoine Bejui are the new owners of French steel-furniture manufacturer Tolix. “What I’m taking with me from the fashion industry is a general curiosity, being inspired by different aspects and an ability to reinvent yourself,” says Gerbase. “It’s about being more fluid, never resting on your laurels. The ultimate compliment for me is seeing pieces that I’ve created in use – and with objects for the home, you have even more ability to be in people’s intimate spaces.”

As a non-Dane, Gerbase is also well placed to extol the virtues of Georg Jensen to an international audience that might not be familiar with the brand. In Denmark, the house is well-known and regarded as an institution. “If you speak to Danes, [Georg Jensen] is part of their culture,” she says. “Everyone has multiple items [from the brand] that are part of their celebrations and their day-to-day.” For a Danish creative director, this historical baggage might weigh down their ability to challenge the status quo. As an outsider, Gerbase is able to approach the house from a fresh perspective. Case in point, this gelateria danese that marks a new chapter for the storied brand, under a creative director who is, with an appropriate balance of respect and irreverence, doing away with the rulebook and bringing some levity to the house.

We predict that this ice-cream kiosk will become a hot spot at which to cool off this Milan Design Week. “I would love for people to come and spend a moment with us,” says Gerbase. “I want to provide respite. To frame a solitary moment or coffee with a friend.” See you there, for a mid-afternoon affogato. 
georgjensen.com