Just when you thought Parisian upstart Coperni — with its Rihanna and Bella Hadid-vetted sets — couldn’t get any buzzier… it does. During the label’s AW22 show, Gigi Hadid took to the runway carrying its most viral creation yet: a devil-horned, glass version of the signature Swipe bag we’ve seen tucked under just about everyone’s arms. Coperni teamed up with NYC-based glassware brand Heven to craft three variations of the oval-shaped shoulder bag: alongside Gigi’s devilish rendition, a futuristic mirrorball bag, and an opaque, icy blue variant (described as “My ex’s 💧💧” on Instagram). Not only are they crystalline-beautiful, they’re fully-functional, too, able to fit an iPhone, your wallet — and even serve as protection on your walk home.
In addition to modelling, directing, acting, singing and founding a fledgling clothing label, multi-hyphenate couple Breanna Box and Peter Dupont took up glass-blowing in the midst of the pandemic, launching Heven in late 2020. Together, they created a collection of playful and kitschy glass housewares: tentacled vases, tulip-shaped wine glasses and signature devil-horned carafes. “We elaborated the name to ‘Home in Heven’ because we began branching out into other home items. And, at that time, we wanted to make our home heaven, because we were locked down,” Breanna says, explaining the brand’s namesake.
While home is where the Heven is — or originated — the duo had spoken about breaching the realm of fashion since the label’s inception. After a DM from Coperni’s Sébastien Meyer, they decided to take the plunge. Here, on a rainy afternoon in New York City, we spoke with the busy, glass-blowing couple about Heven’s inception, their playful approach to tradition and the origins of their buzzy Coperni collab.
You’re both such multi-hyphenates. What led you to take up glass-blowing on top of everything you already do?
B: I took a glass-blowing class in New York while I was visiting from London. It was just as Covid was starting to get scary and my friends were all staying in the house but I was like “Okay, I have to do something.” I don’t even know how the hell I found the class! I think I was looking on Groupon — so random. It was just me and two nurses, and we had an amazing time. When I got back to London, I was like “Oh my god, we have to do this,” and I found The Glass Hub, this incredible studio in Frome that’s completely woman-owned and run by a woman named Katie [Huskie]. She really took us under her wing to help us learn.
Could you talk me through the process? It doesn’t seem like an easy feat.
P: It’s a very traditional craft in a lot of ways. There’s a certain, correct way of doing things, and the way you normally learn is so much about restraining the material and being super clean in your work. With Katie, it was really special. She gave us a lot of freedom. It was always “Let’s play around, let’s make what we want to make and we’ll figure out how to do it as we go.” That’s what we’re trying to do now. We allow an uncontrollable element and try to work with the life that’s in the glass rather than restraining it. We’re still learning a lot but we’re trying to stick with that playfulness.
In three words, how would you describe Heven?
B: Organic, sardonic and, I hope, memorable.
P: I like “memorable.” I like that our work provokes some kind of feeling in people, whether they laugh with it or find it a bit provocative or sweet.
B: Because glass is such a bougie, old-lady thing: like, my grandma collects glass. It’s beautiful but it’s so untouchable, so it’s nice to infuse some youth and fun into it.
I think your Handsome Devil vessels are really sweet. What was the inspiration behind those pieces?
B: That was the first thing I ever made. I made it for a friend who gave me my first directing job. Because his name’s Damien, I was thinking about Damien [from The Omen] and the devil. When I finished it, I was looking at it like, “Wait, maybe I shouldn’t give it to him yet.” I had some photos taken of it and made it its own Instagram account just to see what would happen. And it sold. I was like, “Oh, wow. Okay, I’ll make him a different one!” (laughs)
For the AW22 season, you created a blown glass version of Coperni’s Swipe bag. How did that collaboration come about?
B: Sébastien has been following us for a while. When he DM’d us, asking us to do a glass bag, I was like “Okay, epic.” Design-wise, I already knew what I wanted to do.
P: We’d already talked about glass bags a long time ago.
B: Yeah, my grandma collects them in her flower shop. It’s a very old Murano style, but it’s usually made of multiple pieces of glass. The tricky thing about this bag — and we’re blessed to be able to work with other fabricators at Brooklyn Glass who are far beyond our skill level — is that it’s one piece. Even though we were working with Josh [Raiffe] who’s been doing glass forever, it was a hard piece to make!
How did the bag come together?
P: It was a fun process, especially because Josh enjoys this playfulness that we bring to the table. We did a lot of things you do not normally do in glass-blowing. We used an air hose instead of blowing with our mouths because the material was so thick.
B: We had to drill in and open it with scissors. It was hard to make that shape.
But they came out beautifully! How did you feel seeing Heven on the runway?
P: We brought Josh to Paris and he came to the show, which was an amazing experience for him because he’s not in the fashion world. He thought it was so trippy to see our bag walk down with Gigi Hadid.
Where would you say these bags fall on the fashion-art spectrum. Did you create them as art pieces or as real, functional accessories?
P: I always have difficulty with this “art” thing, in terms of what we do. For me, art is something that doesn’t have a function. You can’t live in it, you can’t eat it; it’s just there and it has an aesthetic purpose. Our pieces always have a functionality and that’s one of the philosophies behind what we do with Heven. This bag is functional: you can put your phone in it, your wallet.
B: Flowers… It’s a weapon.
P: (laughing) It’s definitely not a weapon!
B: It is a weapon! For a woman walking home alone in New York City, it’s a weapon.
What’s next for Heven? Will you be branching out further into the realm of fashion and accessories?
P: This isn’t the last glass bag we’re going to make. We have a lot of ideas. With this collaboration, we had to fit into the Coperni aesthetic. But I’m excited for when we can do something that’s completely our own aesthetic. For now, we’re making a special bag for one of our best friends’ weddings, which is an honour and will be fun.
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Credits
All photos courtesy of Heven