Helena Christensen has always been renowned as a tastemaker. One of the original Nineties supermodels, she went on to carve out a successful career as a photographer, creative consultant and writer. In more recent years, she has turned her eye to interior design – and it all stems from her childhood, she tells HELLO! in this exclusive interview.
"I've always poured love and attention into creating spaces that feel comforting and inspiring," she says.
"As a child growing up outside Copenhagen, I was always searching for objects in the fields near our home – little fragments of the past. That instinct to collect and curate never left me."
Born in Copenhagen to a Danish father and a Peruvian mother, Helena, 57, first glimpsed success when she won the Miss Universe Denmark contest in 1986, aged just 17. The following year, after becoming a finalist in the 1987 Look of the Year competition, she left home to pursue modelling in Paris.
The fashion world quickly took notice of the young model with the piercing green eyes, and magazine shoots with the famed photographer Peter Lindbergh followed, as well as a close friendship with Chanel’s creative director, Karl Lagerfeld.
She shot to global fame when she appeared in the music video for Chris Isaak's Wicked Game in 1991. On the catwalk, she was Gianni Versace's first choice to walk in his label’s shows, and in 1997 she became one of the original Victoria’s Secret Angels, models who appeared in barely-there lingerie for the American retailer.
"Travelling the world as a model deepened my fascination with architecture, craft and design"
© Gamma-Rapho via Getty ImagesHelena began a five-year relationship with the actor Norman Reedus in 1998, and the birth of their son, Mingus, the following year prompted her to pursue freelance photography, shooting projects for international brands and magazines and going on to hold her first solo show in London in 2003.
But fashion remains a constant. In recent weeks, she has been back among the industry crowd at Milan Fashion Week, where she attended the Tod’s show alongside the actresses Lily James and Minnie Driver, sharing a photograph of the three of them together with her 1.2 million Instagram followers.
© @helenachristensenThese experiences have all fed into her lifelong love of design, she tells us. "Travelling the world as a model deepened my fascination with architecture, craft and design. I absorbed everything – colours, textures, forms – and that knowledge naturally found its way into how I create my spaces," she says.
Everyday details
In 2025, she took on the role of global artistic director at the Danish furniture brand BoConcept. It's a natural fit, she says.
"The same way the clothes you put on express who you are and how you feel, so does the way you decorate your home show your true personality. It's the art on the walls, the objects you've collected, pieces of nature. You move into an empty space and then slowly make it come to life."
For Helena, home truly is where the heart is. The "daily rituals" she loves include "going to the market, cooking, inviting friends, lighting candles". A perennial comfort is her Australian shepherd dog Kuma, who can often be found curling up with her. The star says that "listening to her little sounds" is one of her favourite things.
Helena splits her time between her homes in America and Denmark: an apartment in the West Village in Manhattan, a clapboard retreat in the Catskills in upstate New York, a bolthole in Copenhagen and a summer retreat on the Danish coast, a few hours from the capital.
Her role with BoConcept "happened very organically", she tells us, and her commitment is evident. "I've loved interiors, architecture and objects for as long as I can remember, so when BoConcept approached me it felt like a natural continuation of something I was already living every day. I admired their deep respect for Danish design heritage."
She has designed a lounge chair inspired by the islands of Denmark, which she hopes will evoke the sense of sanctuary that can be found in being by the water: "For me, design is about creating positive emotions and environments that feel comforting, playful and inspiring."
Helena Christensen is the global artistic director for BoConcept; boconcept.com
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