Nathan Williams was the last founding member to leave Kinfolk, the magazine that helped define a generation promoting a slow lifestyle and community-style gatherings. He also left Copenhagen, where Kinfolk had been based since 2015, and moved to Toronto for a new role as chief creative officer at Canadian bookstore chain Indigo. In an informal conversation with his partner Nick Nemechek, he reflects on his new career and his time spent as an expat in Denmark.
WORDS as told to Nick Nemechek PHOTOGRAPHY Erik Lefvander
NICK It feels a little unusual for us to be sitting here doing an interview, as we speak all day long!
NATHAN Yes, but a good opportunity to reflect on things, the past few years, and what’s next.
NICK You ended up living in Copenhagen for four years, setting up an office and further developing your business. What did Copenhagen mean for the development of Kinfolk and what did it come to mean to you?
NATHAN Moving to Copenhagen turned out to be the best decision we could have made at the time, both professionally and personally. I had been drawn to the city for years after visiting a few times and keeping some close friends over time. The city aligned with the values of the Kinfolk brand and aligned with the lifestyle I also wanted at the time. It’s a relatively small city, packed with design and a supportive, talented design community with canal swimming and culture at one’s finger tips. Kinfolk always felt like a misfit in Oregon, and after moving to Copenhagen it just felt like the shoe fit, we were at home. I guess I was following a similar identity crisis with Kinfolk in tandem. I didn’t feel Oregon was right for me, or my previous homes in Hawaii and California. Arriving in Copenhagen was like discovering a foreign city that felt surprisingly familiar. It was exactly where I wanted to be.
NICK Looking back to the time spent in Denmark, what do you miss the most? What places and traditions have affected you? Tell us a bit about the places you used to go. How is life in Copenhagen for an expat?
NATHAN There’s an ease and informality to socialising in Copenhagen that I’ve missed. We didn’t make plans with friends in advance, no pressure for anything elaborate. We would text friends at five to ask about dinner plans, then be cooking together by six. We’d go for an after-work swim at the canal and others would spontaneously join on their way home. It’s like the care-free latch-key days as a kid in a small town, cycling around the neighborhood to see what’s going on, leaving our bikes on the lawn so others know where to join the crew after school.
NICK These i
