3 minute read
HEVEN HAND BLOWS UTOPIA
WORDS BY SOPHIE SHAW PHOTOGRAPHY BY EVAN BROWNING
Their medium may be delicate and fragile, but Breanna Box and Peter Dupont’s glasswork is anything but precious. The multi-hyphenate couple—the first a musician, director, actor, and model, while her partner, also a model, co-founded the sustainable fashion cooperative Andel—launched their creative practice known as Heven last year. With references from art, pop culture, and design, the brand’s glass-blown homewares are colorful and kitschy, and the Brooklyn, New York-based duo are bringing their fun approach to other areas of home design, too.
From lopsided goblets to devil-horned carafes, Heven’s glass pieces are imperfect and irreverent—just like their makers want them to be. “It needs to be fun—both for us to make but also to be around—and it needs to have some kind of playfulness to it,” says Dupont. This attitude is something that has been intentionally infused within their creative processes, which leaves plenty of room for error with seldom mistakes being genuinely made. “The way that we work is so fun that stuff literally has to break—maybe even break twice—before we actually trash it,” he continues. “Some of the best things happen when you can’t control the medium.”
Where they did need uniformity, however, was with their collaboration with the Parisian fashion label Coperni. The partnership, which debuted last spring, felt like a natural next step; Heven was already working on their first handbag when French designer Sébeastien Meyer serendipitously slid into Box’s DMs. After a couple prototypes, the two hit their mark with a glass rendition of Coperni’s oval-shaped Swipe bag. And yet, in spite of its immediate virality, the glassmakers still weren’t sure how their fashion-meets-art object would be received. “It’s such a new and special product—is it furniture? Is it a vase? Is it a functional thing?” Dupont muses. “Is it something you’re just gonna have standing in your house, or can you actually bring it anywhere?”
No doubt the Coperni project catapulted Heven’s practice, and with that, they’ve had to reckon with growing their operations while keeping it true to their explorative approach. “Sometimes the machine of fashion dilutes that because everything has to be so fast. It’s a constant battle between actually being able to take the time and create something that’s meaningful, and then creating something to make money on it,” Dupont says. “We’re learning and navigating,” Box adds. “People that have had charge of both industries—fashion and art—are a bit silly. And we’re definitely taking the piss out of it.”
“WE’RE LEARNING AND NAVIGATING. PEOPLE THAT HAVE HAD CHARGE OF BOTH INDUSTRIES, FASHION AND ART, ARE A BIT SILLY. AND WE’RE DEFINITELY TAKING THE PISS OUT OF IT.”
—BREANNA BOX
While Heven has more fashion objects to come, the studio is also expanding into furniture design, lighting, and much more. Box shares that a personal search for a bookshelf from the 1800s inspired one of the new pieces they’ve been working on. “It all comes from necessity,” she says of their projects. “How can we make this new and how can we have this for our own home?” Complementarily, Dupont explains, “We want to make stuff that has a functionality to it, that can fit into people’s everyday life and make it easier.” One such item is a colorful five-piece dining table set that the two created that features crescent-shaped cutouts, allowing its different pieces to hug each other. It’s a nod to Dupont’s heritage, emphasizing Denmark’s traditions in furniture and modern design. Just as with their glass creations, in which Heven’s founders work with skilled glassblowers to develop and execute many of their ambitious pieces, the pair deferred to experienced craftspeople to help actualize their designs. For furniture, they’re working with Danish carpenters, and for glass, they’ve recruited local artists in the Brooklyn area. “We all have shit in our house, so why not have something that was beautifully made by somebody who’s put their blood sweat and tears into it?” surmises Box. “That’s so much more special.”
Big picture is important to the pair, who ultimately want Heven to evolve into a hub for creatives beyond objects and design. Box and Dupont have their sights set on the film industry (the company itself was partly launched to raise funds for a documentary Box is making about her late grandfather), and their ultimate dream would be for Heven to be a showroom and studio space for film. “Basically I’m just trying to be like Lucille Ball and have Desilu Productions,” Box laughs. “No ceiling, no cap, I [want] a store that has a flower shop downstairs and my grandmother working there—she’s a florist— and to just create a family and give the people I care about jobs. I know so many talented people.”
“Utopia would be a space where we could create and be able to fulfill that not only for ourselves, but also for the people around us with creative energy,” Dupont says. “That’ll be amazing. And glass has been a gateway to that.”
