Interview: Bengt Thornefors of Magniberg — Dress your bed as you dress yourself

Founded in 2016 by creative duo Nina Norgren and Bengt Thornefors, Magniberg emerged from a desire to challenge the conventions of home textiles and reimagine the bedroom as a space charged with emotion, culture and self-expression. Conceived years earlier and shaped by backgrounds spanning fashion and art, the brand approaches bed linen with the attitude of a wardrobe — mixing materials, colours and references with instinct and whim. Drawing on influences as varied as Tracey Emin, childhood memories, street culture and the 1769 family home that lends the company its name, Magniberg stands as a study in contrast — where heritage meets subversion and the bedroom becomes a canvas for personal expression. What was your intention when you launched Magniberg in 2016?

Nina and I actually started planning Magniberg in 2011 when I left Acne Studios. Then consultancy work for YSL came up and we had to pause it. So we launched five years later.

It was unexplored territory back then. People didn’t do bed linen from that point of view, the way we shot things, for example, or the combination of textiles and colours.

We felt that the market was stereotypical and a bit boring and correct and wanted to present home textiles in a new context, giving everyday objects a personal and emotional energy.

Bridging art, interior and culture.

Specifically, we wanted to tell a story out of the bedroom – how it was about more than sleeping. You have long conversations, you eat, dream, you watch movies, work, think and read. You have sex, you spend a lot of time in bed. I often think of the artist Tracey Emin’s installation My Bed, where she refers to her lovers and the bedroom as a messy room full of emotions.

Obviously, we wanted to build a brand, to make products that people could consume and wear but that wasn’t really the starting point for Nina and I. We wanted to go on a journey – explore things and tell a story – they work in parallel. The system didn’t exist, so we had to create our own space, it takes time. We named it Magniberg after the 1769 house we live in, because it stands for longevity and also has a personal connection.

This gives Magniberg, as a brand, a meaning related to where we are coming from and where we are going. A name is just letters until you fill it with emotions and experiences. For us the exploring part is crucial.You say you wanted to bring emotions and a new perspective to the world of interiors through fantasy, tactility, functionality and culture. Can you elaborate on this?

Fantasy is emotional, it represents our dreams and our free and floating perspective on interiors and apparel. Tactility is how we work with product, how things feel, and also how we combine bedding, clothes or furniture.

Functionality, we make things that have a function or purpose even though they can be decorative. A lot of brands are searching for newness but I think greatness is a better ambition, making products that have a reason to be, that last design-wise and quality-wise.

The emotional point of view is intrinsic to this.

Culture is our source of references and also the life around our products, it’s very open. It can mean quality, for instance, Portugal has a history of producing high quality home textiles, it’s a part of their culture.

They are core values that encompass what we do.

Dress your bed as your dress yourself is a Magniberg catchphrase, what does it represent?

It’s about attitude and energy – about having the same approach to dressing your bedroom or home as you do to what you wear; about what happens when you mix materials and styles; and ultimately, it’s about how that makes you feel. We made the bed with washed jersey like a favourite perfectly worn-in T-shirt or lace like lingerie, when you put them together you create this energy, the same sort of charge you get from great clothes.

Dressing the bed can also have a literal meaning, our sheets or blankets are good enough to wear. The poplin we use for sheets is good enough for a fine shirt. This makes sense to offer bedding that is both a great product in terms of the actual textile and also the emotions that are wrapped up in it. You have four Magniberg keywords – Dance, Gardening, Sleep and Romance. How do they inform what you do?

They evoke an emotion but also have a direct connection, we follow them and whatever we do needs to relate to them. If we are doing something new, we ask, what is this? Is it dance, gardening, sleep or romance? Then the product has a reason to be and we put the word on the label.

Dance is not necessarily going to a discotheque. At home I dance with my kids, or for them and we laugh. Dance is about fun and letting go. Often you dance without knowing it.

Gardening has so many allusions. We have a garden where Nina grows flowers, the kids play or I lay there and do nothing. Other people associate gardening with nature or being asleep on a blanket in a park. 

Sleep, you can sleep in the sheets or the clothes, but it can have a bigger meaning, everyone wants to sleep well or dream. Likewise romance, you can dream about or fall in love, or, at least, romanticise big ideas. These keywords infuse everything we do.  

What makes a towel a Magniberg towel?

If you buy a towel from us it needs to have something special, be distinctive. After a bath or a swim you put it next to your body so it is a feeling, a touch, something emotional but it also needs to look good. We search for details, like the deep hem which is stitched and folded. Our name is woven into the jacquard and we have a signature Magniberg label woven on old shuttle looms.

Our solid colour towels are called Gelato and named after ice-cream flavours, like passion yellow, cherry brown or coconut white. With their names you romanticise the idea of Italian ice-cream stands where you see all the gelato displayed together and choose your flavours.

Personally I love fregola pink, pink is an attitude, we think of it as femininity and softness but there’s more to it. When I was in high school, I printed this pink T-shirt with an image of Bamse, the Swedish cartoon character, the world’s strongest bear. Maybe that says something, pink stands for a certain softness, but at the same time it can be a bear, something more assertive and it works really well with other colours. You can mix up the colours with our towels, they become more interesting. I think they will be displayed rather than hidden away.Do you think there is a generational change about how people communicate themselves — for instance, by showing their home rather than their handbag?

We love the idea of offering our bedwear to all generations and see a shift generally, of people expressing themselves through how they live. The home becomes an extension of you. Instead of a handbag, you communicate yourself with a duvet or a blanket. I think our generation wants to be touched on different levels and in everything we surround ourselves with.

We’d like for someone to fall as much in love with our pink lace and washed black jersey as with our pure, white Supima cotton sateen. While they differ in appearances, they are a part of a wardrobe.

For me it starts with the lower sheet, this is the foundation of the bed. It’s a critical element that many tend to overlook. You lie on it; your body is always in contact with it. I like mine crisp and fresh white poplin or white sateen. Then you dress your bed from there to reflect you or your current mood.Pan After's edit of Magniberg is now available in our Collingwood showroom and online.

Image Credits: Nikolaj, Sølve Sundsbø, Mikael Olsson.