July 2009 - Style in Sweden - Blogs

Archive for July, 2009

When is summer finally over? The H&M autumn collection.

Saturday, July 25th, 2009

I actually avoid thinking about autumn collections when it’s still summer but when I received the new H&M catalogue this week I started looking forward to the season. The new collection is so fantastic that I was at H&M’s today to check if some of the clothes were already for sale. The only piece that I found was a new cute scarf so I have to wait a bit longer for the other fabulous garments.

hm1

The autumn collection is much more appealing to me since lots of the clothes are very structured with clear lines and at the same time cute and cheerful. Furthermore, some of the pieces have a French vintage flair, which I find incredibly chic. The colours are very classic autumn this season including much purple, green, red and blue.

No crazy animal prints like it was in the summer collection! Flower prints still feature many clothes but I actually started to like them.

I just love the whole collection. Even the red-headed and pale model on the cover of the H&M catalogue reminds of such a beautiful side of autumn that I just can’t wait until everything is copper red and golden outside.

Here are my favourite pieces of the catalogue:

Blue or white? All of them are so pretty!

It looks beautiful but I'm not sure if I can handle the heel...

The whole outfit is just amazing! In particular the trousers!

So red! So black! So chic!

I need the hat!

hm7

Beautiful cardigan!

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Posted in Hip & Hype. Trends in Sweden. | 2 comments »

The new natural beauty. And Beth Ditto again.

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

I read in several Swedish lifestyle magazines and blogs that make-up, mascara and all the other smart beauty aids that we use everyday are going out of style. The French ELLE even featured several top models such as Monica Belluci and Eva Herzigova without any make-up in the April issue. It was the best-sold issue ever.

The Swedish ELLE writes this month that the fashion world is sick of perfect beauty. A new beauty era has started, in which photographer and stylists are searching for more natural and unfaked faces and bodies. Goodbye Barbie! The new fashion icon is “fat, lesbian and feminist”, at least according to her own description. Beth Ditto.

On the one hand, it’s for sure that fashion trends and icons change over time. There was the glamour girl, the tomboy, the androgynous one, the heroin model etc. On the other hand, I doubt that the top models on Vogue, Cosmopolitan and ELLE will look like unfaked beauties without make-up soon.

Apart from Beth Ditto, this year’s fashion icons are Georgia May Jagger and Peaches Geldof, according to ELLE. Without a doubt, all of them are very beautiful. But I’m wondering if they actually look so natural?! Beth Ditto’s figure is indeed something absolutely new in the fashion world but does she really represent natural and unfaked beauty? She always wears red lipstick, lots of eyeliner and pale make-up. And Peaches Geldof? I find she’s almost the opposite of natural style.

I think the French ELLE that featured the top models without make-up was such a success because people wanted to know if the models were really as beautiful as they always thought. We become happy (at least I do) if wee see that models also have wrinkles and blemishes. Well, if they have them. It’s not that difficult to make a ‘normal’ face incredibly beautiful and perfect in times of picture editing programmes. Photoshop – the new make-up. Isn’t that even more faked?

The new fashion icons Georgia May Jagger, Peaches Geldof and Beth Ditto.

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Posted in Beauty. | No comments »

Mini for many. New clothing line from Minimarket.

Friday, July 17th, 2009

My favourite Swedish label is Minimarket. I love the colourful, cartoon-like and very special style of the three sisters Sofie, Pernilla and Jennifer Elvestedt. Unfortunately, Minimarket is quite expensive so that I do not buy the clothes so often.

Therefore I was so incredibly happy when I read in the Swedish ELLE that the creative girls from Minimarket designed a new collection called “mini for many”, which will come out soon. According to ELLE, the fashion line will be younger, simpler and the garments will be sold in more shops.

The best thing is that the clothes look fantastic! At least the few garments that I have found so far.

When I checked the website of Minimarket I spied a further section, “mini for weekday”. I’m wondering if that is some kind of cooperation with the Swedish store chain “Weekday” or if they plan to design a collection that features more everyday fashion. I will keep you informed.

Anyway, here are the first pictures of “mini for many”.

mini-for-many

By the way, don’t miss the summer sale. I just bought a very cute skirt from Minimarket for half the price at Mint & Vintage in Stockholm.

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Posted in Fashion Findings., Uncategorized | 2 comments »

Scarves. So typical European?

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

Fashion is all about accessories. You can change the cheapest and most boring look into an interesting and chic outfit with a few accessories. Therefore I love scarves.

dsc02063-kopie

I never go out without a scarf. I wear them in school, at nightclubs and sometimes when I sleep. Even if it’s 30 degrees outside I wear some small scarf. Of course, I have some dresses to which a scarf does not fit so well. If I have one of them on I do not wear a scarf (but I have one in my handbag…just in case…).

The day after a non-scarf night is always horrible. My neck cracks and really hurts so that I have to wear an extra huge scarf. I don’t know if that is psychosomatic or if I have an extreme sensitive neck (or maybe I should finally start working out…).

A friend from the US told me once that this thing with the scarves is so typical European. No one in the US would wear such grandma accessories. I heart that the general style in the US is more casual but is it really so out to wear a scarf? However, this friend also told me that American students often go in pyjamas to school and I’m still wondering if she was kidding or not. If that is true a US university must be the opposite of a Swedish one where students are so dressed up that I sometimes wonder if they are really on their way to school or a hip club.

Anyway, I love my little collection of grandma scarves. I think I have some 30 pieces now from different countries and shops in different colours and price categories.

Here are my favourite ones:

Some second hand shop in Berlin (Sorry, I don't remember which one).

H&M.

My grandma's wardrobe.

Beyond Retro, Stockholm.

Some second hand shop in Berlin (don't remember which one).

Beyond Retro, Stockholm.

Lindex.

By the way, I wanted to wear a scarf on the picture of the banner but the photographer thought that would not look so great. Therefore you don’t see a scarf on that picture.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 5 comments »

Big in fashion. Beth Ditto from the Gossip.

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

A few weeks ago I found a girl on the Stureplan website who wore a t-shirt with the request “Pease don’t feed the models” on it. I just rolled my eyes and forgot this ‘wise’ message quite quickly.

However, I started to think about the girl and her t-shirt again when I realised how popular Beth Ditto from the US band “The Gossip” is in the fashion industry at the moment. Since the corpulent Indie Rock singer was naked on the new British lifestyle magazine Love she became a fashion icon. Karl Lagerfeld said recently that Beth Ditto is his new muse (remember that it was once Kate Moss!!!) and also the Swedish Cosmopolitan writes that Beth Ditto is one of their favourites this summer.

I think Beth Ditto’s popularity is great since her plus-plus-size figure gives the fashion industry new and important impulses. I don’t expect and I don’t want that all the models on the runway will look like her soon but maybe her popularity indicates a cut. Like the skinny Twiggy did in the 1960s when she replaced she feminine Marilyn Monroe style.

To be honest, I was actually pretty shocked when I saw Beth Ditto naked as a cover girl for the first time because I liked skinny models and the heroin look. But then I realised that I thought in exactly the same way like the Stureplan girl whose message I had considered as stupid. “Please don’t feed the models!”. And then I was shocked again.

It’s good to see people who are different in the world of fashion because you maybe re-think some of your views. At least I did.

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Posted in People. | 4 comments »

The curious case of Madonna and Louis Vuitton.

Monday, July 6th, 2009

When I saw the pictures of the new Louis Vuitton campaign with Madonna in Dagens Nyheter first I did not even recognised the queen of pop. The pictures are so extremely photoshopped that the woman on the picture could be every random model in this world. Every 18-year old model. No wrinkles, no mimic, nothing! She looks like a porcelain doll.

Everybody knows that Madonna is 50 and no 50-year old woman has such a smooth face. Of course, I don’t like my first wrinkles and I totally understand that it’s almost impossible to avoid the beauty mania and striving for the perfect body in the music, film and fashion industry. I’m really not a person who stands up for natural beauty. However, these pictures are so obviously photoshopped to make her look younger that I find them ridiculous. She looks more like her daughter than herself.

If it wasn’t Madonna on the pictures I would find them very beautiful and sophisticated but the fact that a 50-year old pop star obviously cannot accept her age made me laugh. I thought about the movie “The curious case of Benjamin Button” with Brad Pitt when I saw the pictures for the first time since I had never seen her looking younger.

I am wondering if Madonna, the designer Marc Jacobs and all the other people who are involved in the campaign do not realise that nobody believes that Madonna looks so young or if they photoshopped it so much to catch the attention of the media or if they just don’t care!?

madonna1

Pictures by: Steven Meisel

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Posted in People., Uncategorized | 4 comments »

Stockholm Fashion Week. Diverse and un-’lagom’.

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

Stockholm fashion week is over and I am looking forward to fantastic diverse clothes next year. I always complain that Swedish fashion needs more variety but this time I’m really impressed by the new spring/summer collections 2010.

We have the darker grunge and punk influences in the garments by The Local Firm and Cheap Monday. There are the very cute vintage-looking collections by Dagmar and Islæt and we have also seen the feminine chic line by Säby, Noir et Blanc and Ida Sjöstedt’s who included lots of shiny and glittering materials in her collections.

As I wrote in a former blog entry, my favourite Swedish designer is Minimarket and after this fashion week the three sisters behind the label could reinforce my opinion. The theme of the new collection is aquarium built in a typical Minimarket manner: colourful, cartoon-like and personal in its shape.

The colour range goes in apricot, mint, coral and greige, with accessories and jackets in cobalt blue suede. Several of the garments are three-coloured, for example the coat ‘anemon’, which is made in greige, apricot and black.

Minimarket displayed also several new accessories such a computer bag in patent leather, a small evening bag and a large bag in suede. The shoe line has widened to five styles including for instance two new ballerinas.

I find the new neater hat is the best piece in the new collection, which Minimarket describes as crossover between a helmet and a cap. Incredible beautiful!

What I love about Minimarket is their creativity and openness. The new collection was displayed in different parks in Stockholm so that everybody had a chance to see the new pieces. I think that’s a great idea! Fashion is the widest spread form of art so that everybody should have the chance to be part of it.

Minimarket.

Dagmar.

Islaet.

Cheap Monday.

The Local Firm.

Ida Sjostedt.

Noir et Blanc.

Pictures from: Kristian Löveborg/ Fashion Week by Berns.

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Posted in Fashion Weeks. | No comments »

Stockholm Fashion Week. Punk vs. Lady.

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

Scandinavian designers present their spring/summer 2010 collections at Berns Salonger in Stockholm this week and so far I see two obvious trends. The punk and the lady look.

On the one hand, there are the collections of Cheap Monday and The Local Firm, which are very hard and dark including jeans and lots of asymmetric patterns and forms. The shaved heads and smoky make-up of the models underline this dirty and evil image. The collections remind me of Berlin 1980s and early 1990 punk style.

On the other hand, labels like Dagmar, Islæt and Noir et Blanc presented very chic, cheerful and colourful garments including rather clear lines and some vintage influences. The models look very feminine wearing mostly dresses and skirts and have perfectly styled long hair.

Personally, I rather prefer the second variant. I’m particularly intrigued by the Danish label Islæt and it’s Scandinavian expression combined with the colourful and diverse London influence. It’s so beautiful! Like an Alexander McQueen collection on a Scandinavian ‘lagom’ basis!

I also love the cute high heels in the Dagmar collection, which are three-coloured, often blue, red and black and influenced by the Art Deco period of the 1920s and 1930s, especially in terms of the form. The perfect shoe for me!

The spring and summer collection of Cheap Monday was rather disappointing. Every garment looks totally over the top. Too many holes, too much batik and too much that I have seen before.

Today are the final shows at Berns Salonger, presented by Ida Sjöstedt and Bertoni. More punk or more lady? Or something completely different?