On August 9th 2018, the two designers and friends, Jóhanna and Sissal, re-opened Ullvøruhúsið, in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands. The two have each their knitwear brand, Jóhanna owns Steinum, and Sissal owns Shisa Brand. The shop is a co-shop for the two brands, but you’ll also find items under the U-brand, or the Ullvøruhúsið brand.  

Ullvøruhúsið is a true fixture of Tórshavn. In 1918, the shop opened at this same location, first as Uldvarehuset (Danish, meaning ‘the wool ware house’), and later in Faroese as Ullvøruhúsið (same meaning, now in Faroese). As there weren’t many shops in Tórshavn at this time, the shop stocked a great variety of goods; yarn, knitwear, clothing for men and women, underwear and even candy. The shop closed in the mid 80’s, and up until then, it had been run by the same family, some of them are even today nicknamed with ‘í Ullvøruhúsinum’ as a means to describe who we are talking about.

We, Sissal and Jóhanna, remember with fondness visiting the mysterious shop Ullvøruhúsið as young girls. The shop seemed to be crammed from the floor to the ceiling with anything you could imagine, making it a fascinating place to visit – mostly with your mother or grandmother as this was a shop where you wouldn’t find many men.

When the premises became vacant in the summer 2018, and we decided to open our co-shop there, we also decided to go back to the original name. As both brands are knitwear brands, the name Ullvøruhúsið (wool ware house) makes great sense. We also decided to make it look as original as possible, and most of the interior is therefore the original interior – shelfs, drawers, the counter, and even the floor is the original wooden floor. When cleaning the walls for wall-paper we found some original painted borders on two of the walls, and of-course decided not to paint the wall, leaving it as a beautiful fixture and decoration in the shop.