Hést in show: Step inside Märtha Louise’s home to meet the visionary women behind her brand

When 53-year-old Märtha Louise of Norway married Durek Verrett last summer, there was plenty for the public to take in: the couple’s unabashed joy, the picturesque fjord setting, and the A-list guestlist including several Scandinavian royal family members. Amongst all the captivating details, however, one fashion moment stole the show: coordinating pink outfits which the pair wore for the pre-wedding party. His was a single-breasted suit; hers, a halterneck dress fastened with heart-shaped buckles. Both were emblazoned with the wavy ‘H’ insignia of Märtha Louise’s own brand: Hést.

It’s a brand she co-founded with fellow Norwegians Anne-Kari Bøhaugen and Monica Sundt Utne, the latter of whom also serves as creative director. It was Sundt Utne who was responsible for bringing Märtha Louise’s idea of the matching pink Hést outfits to life for the pre-wedding event. “It was all very nerve wracking because the first sample that came out from the factory was too big by this much,” Märtha Louise recounts, indicating gaping proportions around her chest, “and we were like, ‘Is this supposed to be the dress?’” “We had to have another one made straight away,” says Sundt Utne, “and it arrived just two days before the party. I was not sleeping at all during those weeks.”

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Sleepless nights have been commonplace amongst the Hést trio ever since the fashion and homewares brand came into being five years ago. In the early days, when dealing with very small sample quantities, they noticed one specific sweater sparking a lot of interest. So, they made the bold decision to place a bumper order of 5,000 from their factory. “I didn’t sleep for three months,” Bøhaugen says. “Every night I was counting out where we would scrape the money to pay for these sweaters,” she trails off, reliving the anxiety of the impending invoice. “Then it arrived, and I called Monica saying, ‘S***! Today’s the day! Today’s the day we have to pay!” But, as with the pink dress, the situation was settled joyfully. “We sold all 5,000 sweaters within a month and actually had to order more,” Bøhaugen chuckles.

Truth be told, these are women who can handle a lot more than some logistical stress and sleepless nights – as proven by Hést’s beginnings. It all centred around a man called Esben Johannessen: the husband of Bøhaugen and a close friend of Märtha Louise, whom she had known since childhood through their shared love of horses. When the beloved Johannessen passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2019, the bereaved women came together with Sundt Utne, whose lifelong dream it was to start a clothing line. Together, they found the project of building Hést from the ground up to be a sanctuary amid their grief. “I think that, when a crisis hits, you can become very brave,” Märtha Louise says. “Because nothing worse can happen, right?”