Bless, the label founded by Desiree Heiss and Ines Kaag, marked 25 years of doing business its own way last year. That’s a momentous achievement for any label, not to mention an independent one that operates between Paris and Berlin. To mark the occasion, the duo invited the 400+ interns (they change every three months) who have worked with them to celebrate. The number “collects over the years,” deadpanned Heiss, wearing cat-tapestry pants in the label’s unmarked Paris shop. “Our oldest ex-intern is, I guess, 69, and the youngest are our childrens’ ages, 14, who do school internships.” There was a new book, launched in various creative ways, and various creative launches, including totes that represent different pages of the most recent Bless tome.
Heiss and Kaag don’t appear in its pages. That the designers decline to be photographed hasn’t slowed them down, as a Bless x Supreme collaboration for fall 2023 and a Bless x Fendi collar for Design Miami show. The latter included an installation as well as Bless’s iteration on the peekaboo bag that looked like an airmail package. The brand’s “jeansified object” collection (such as denim wrapped brooms) is a good example of the designers’ focus on the everyday. Before the designers had launched Bless, Martin Margiela used the “fits every style” wigs they made from vintage fur coats on his fall 1997 runway. Reuse and reframing are pillars of Bless’s trans-disciplinary practice. A chair is equally at home in the Bless universe as customizable shoes, trousers with double waists—circa 2010—or a scarf sliced out of a toggle coat.
As can be imagined, the Bless approach to presenting work is unconventional. On the first day of October the designers will, said Heiss, “transform the shop into a little movie theater and people can buy slots—there are only 10 to 15—and quietly watch the movies. They will also be projected on the outside of the store so that people who just pass by can see them.” The impetus behind this was last year’s show at MACRO where the videos were shown. “We haven’t done presentations for quite a while, and people kept contacting us asking if we would play all of our videos because there’s this interest in Bless from a new generation, so that’s what we’ll do now,” she explained. The brand has given Vogue Runway a sneak peak at one of the films that will be played in Paris. Heiss also reflected on where the brand started and its latest project.
Once upon a time…
