Celebretail/Hide and Seek: Helena Christensen's Danish Treat

The Shophound had been meaning to visit supermodel Helena Christensen's store Butik for a while now, but we only just realized that we have walked by it about a thousand times as it sits in that section of the Village that connects Bleecker Street with the Meatpacking District. What looks like someone's cluttery front yard is actually the entrance to this eccentric little shop. Christensen opened the store a couple of years ago with Leif Sigersen, a fellow Dane, to bring a little bit of Copenhagen to their adopted home. They came up with a clothing and interior design shop, but if you are expecting a showplace for sleek Scandanavian minimalism, think again. Butik is an intentionally jumbled little store that begs you to explore, as long as you have the patience for it. New apparel from Danish designers hang along with vintage finds and accessories. Occasionally one stumbles across the inscrutable, like a large leaf-shaped bowl displaying some battered "vintage" baby dolls, several with missing limbs priced at about $12 each. We're not sure what one would do with them besides creating a creepy tableau, but that's part of Butik's charm. It may not be everyone's cup of Danish tea but it is entirely original, and intriguing, an accomplishment in itself these days.
Butik Christensen & Sigersen 605 Hudson Street, West Village