In 2021, Malene Malling launched her women’s wear label, La Bagatelle, with a concise edit of seven styles, expecting to sell just a few pieces to friends. But within six hours, all of the one-of-a-kind offerings on her website had sold out, and orders for the remaining made-to-order pieces were coming in so quickly that Malling had to pause sales. “I remember adding up the figures with my daughter on a calculator and being astonished,” said Malling, a former magazine editor and publisher as well as the founder of the creative agency that bears her name.
In the time since, La Bagatelle — which offers clothing made by independent tailors in Copenhagen from artisanal and vintage fabrics Malling finds on her travels to places such as India, Japan and Nepal — has continued to grow. And on a Friday evening in January, Malling decided to toast that success with a small gathering that would double as a celebration of the new year. It was the first dinner Malling had hosted in her terrazzo-floored studio, which occupies the ground level of a 1920s building in the Frederiksberg neighborhood that once housed a cheese shop and, later, a delicatessen. Malling’s creative agency, which produces multimedia campaigns and branding strategies for lifestyle companies, is on the second story. La Bagatelle, she said, is meant to be “a label for women who like to have a glass of wine in the evening, a good meal and a weekend spent swimming or reading.” The party, she hoped, would have “the energy of something truly personal, with special attention to detail.”
To that end, Malling filled the space with armfuls of fresh flowers arranged in her collections of antique French vases and George Jensen pitchers, mixing in eclectic glassware from Akua Objects, a Copenhagen-based line co-founded by her friend the stylist Annika Agerled, who was one of the guests. On each plate, Malling placed a seating card tied to a lavender sachet made from scraps of handwoven Indian cotton left over from La Bagatelle’s shirt production. “I spent summers in the South of France visiting my grandparents, and we always used to come home with lavender bags,” she said. Though there was no dress code, the women all turned up in La Bagatelle designs. “It was the first dinner of the year,” said Malling, “and it had the feeling of new beginnings.”
