Talking about designs

Everywhere trees turns green as people fill the streets, some buying, some selling…

From designer talks to watches – Sketching along my walk

Text and drawings by Frits Ahlefeldt

People are catching up, as what seems like the longest, stay apart winter. The sunglasses at the next table talk about expensive designs, diets and fashion. Two girls and a small bald man, all still in winter clothing, moving with the sun as the shadows of the houses push them east along their benches.

It is afternoon and people are picking up kids, standing in the doorways of the just opened shops or look at their phones. It is one of the most colorful quarters of Copenhagen, where the young designers hang out between homeless people, and new age hippies gather in front of the organic food shop, two stairs down in the cellar. The shop sells coffee at under a third of the price it costs in the rest of the city.

And today, in the afternoon sun, everybody can afford it.

A guy stops his cargo bike and the designers stand up, they hug, after all first confirming they’ve tested negative from the Covid19 virus that closed almost all the shops and places for months, until just last week.

The guy on the bike proudly tells that he is buying a huge apartment down the street, 175 square meters, but times are good…

Street scene Copenhagen Black and white version - Frits Ahlefeldt — Street life in Copenhagen end of April 2021

Street scene Copenhagen - Color version - Frits Ahlefeldt — Street life in Copenhagen end of April 2021

The shadows move on and I sketch the elderly, the designers and the houses as it gets colder, while wondering about the two guys, looking like homeless roughs, I passed just a short distance away, at the edge of a park.

One showed the other a couple of golden designer watches in a box. the other looking at them and nodding: ” I won’t be getting any money till tomorrow. He points across the street: “But try the guy over there”