Design classics relaunched – Hvidt and Mølgaard for &Tradition

Hvidt and Mølgaard are the latest designers to have reissued designs for &Tradition. It’s truly exciting when design classics get pulled out of the archives and breathe a new lease of life. Peter Hvidt and Orla Mølgaard Nielsen were Danish designers of the 1940’s onwards. Their work became widely recognised in the 1950’s because of the industrialised production of light-weight and exportable furniture.

I attended a panel talk in &Tradition’s townhouse in Copenhagen, in the audience, listening to the son’s of Peter Hvidt and Orla Mølgaard talk beautifully about the designs and stories behind Hvidt and Mølgaard’s work. Funny stories of their father’s working lives and the beaming pride from the family. Great design truly does live on. “With furniture we more and more look for a story and connection”, “The intention for chair design is to sit well and look nice”, these words by one of the sons ring true. My nerdy chair loving heart swelled while listening to the panel talk.

They were true visionaries with 275 different furniture designs and between 2/3000 hand drawn designs in their archives. They had designed almost everything you can think of, bridges, ships, a wardrobe for the Queen of Denmark as a wedding gift, chairs, lamps, you name it. Democratic design was a driving force, well before the Ikea days. Hvidt and Mølgaard had produced designs that could be exported and in some cases reassembled on site. With good craftsmanship, a love for detail these designs were for the people.

Their pieces may not be as well known as Hans J Wegner‘s, Arne Jacobsen‘s and Finn Juhl’s (photographed with Hvidt and Mølgaard below), but that’s not to say that their work wasn’t incredibly popular. In fact their work thrived for decades, both working on hundreds of pieces of furniture throughout their lengthy careers.

I’m so happy that &Tradition have worked on reissuing a few of their designs and honouring their legacy. And from this launch in February 2020 I’m sure we will discover much more about this dynamic duo.