It might seem a bit odd to start a series of posts about independent design shops in Copenhagen with a men’s clothing shop but Goods is included because it shows really well just how pervasive good design is in the city … for shops that means using good graphics for signs, packaging and publicity, having carefully-considered and stylish fittings in the shop along with, of course, a strong sense of design and an understanding of the taste and the design heritage of the city. It is an essential part of retail here … for the selling of clothes, books, bread or bikes. Good design here is not something you might or might not consider like an optional extra - it is just assumed that you should and will do things properly - but equally it’s something, curiously, that you usually only comment on if someone is oddly ambivalent about design or just gets it wrong.

Kasper Hostrup gets it right. He opened Goods in 2008 and has just relaunched his web site so that it is not just a catalogue of the clothing that he sells. There are also customer profiles and a guide to local shops that have a similar motivation to select carefully what they sell using their experience, extensive knowledge of the manufacturers and a good judgement of quality along with a clear idea of what their customers want and buy. A very careful balancing act.

Back in 2012 Kasper was interviewed by Selectism online magazine and produced for them a local guide to this part of the city that included restaurants, the local park and the local swimming pool.

As well as clothing, Goods sells a good range of accessories including leather bags and so on and design and fashion magazines but also has simple but well-designed and well-made stools, benches and storage units from Plain Crafts. There is one of their benches outside the shop and it is well used by locals. This is typical of Copenhagen … to spread out onto the pavement.

All that and the bag that you get when you buy something from Goods sums up what I am trying to say but says it succinctly.