Style in Sweden

She doesn’t own hair styling products because she only wears wigs, she likes hats that look like Kermit the frog or huge lobsters and she has bras that shoot sparks. Lady Gaga is probably today’s most experimental pop star. Style icons such Noami Campbell, Rihanna or Blondie star Debbie Harry love her experimental and dramatic style and even the queen of pop and trends, Madonna, has been at a Lady Gaga concert with her daughter, according to Glamour. The world is going gaga.

Photo: Domain Barnyard

This weekend Lady Gaga came to Sweden and continued her Monster Ball tour in Stockholm at the Ericsson Globe. I think it is really a breath of fresh air to see such an extraordinary pop star in the Swedish media. I am so tired of Sweden’s perfect but boring musicians such as this year’s Eurovision Song Contest participant Anna Bergendahl.

I am not the biggest fan of pop music but I think Lady Gaga is really cool. Her songs are exactly how pop songs should be: cheesy but catchy. Many critics of Lady Gaga such as the British musician M.I.A. argue that she is boring because she just does usual pop songs. Nothing special apart from her outfits!

I agree that Lady Gaga is not the new Madonna as her music is really not a total new approach to pop music but compared to other starlets such as Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera she is much more interesting and entertaining. She is a pop star and performance artist in one person and not only a good-looking woman who can sing and dance.

Either you hate her or you love her. I love her and can’t wait until she is coming to Malmö.

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My grandmother called me last week and told me how incredibly sorry she was for Madeleine. “Do you know if the poor thing is fine?” she asked me. First, I was worried that something bad might have happened to one of my friends but then I remembered that my grandmother always talks in a way about the royals as if they would be my direct neighbours and close friends just because I live in Sweden.

Well, it is not only my grandmother who is interested in weddings and cancelled weddings in Sweden at the moment (by the way, I told her that Madeleine is probably fine). If you look at fashion magazines it’s all about wedding dresses and celebrities who are getting married soon.

Marriage has not been a topic in my life yet so I am not really an expert but there is one aspect regarding this big day in life that makes me very curious. All magazines that I have checked present only white wedding dresses. Fashion and trends are developing and changing extremely fast but when it comes to wedding dresses, most women want to wear the classic white version. It seems that the wedding is the big event in life that most people prefer to set up in the traditional way.

Even trendsetter Sarah Jessica Parker as Carry in Sex and the City or pop star Pink had a white dress. Regarding Swedish got-to-be-married celebrities, fashion blogger Elsa Billgren is the only woman who has chosen a raspberry red dress . I think it’s beautiful!

One of my best friends is a very fashion-forward woman having a quite casual style but when it comes to her wedding she always emphasises that she wants to marry in a huge white gown in a catholic church (she is not even catholic).

I am wondering why everybody is so “conservative” when it comes to marriage. Is it just due to tradition or do people like white wedding dresses because they look so innocent and clean? Or do people stick to the colour because they find it elegant?

When I marry one day, I would like to have a red dress. It is my favourite colour and it suits me much better than white. My mom married in black, which I also think is pretty cool.

In what kind of dress would you like to marry or have married and why?

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I read a very interesting article about style rookie, one of the most influential fashion bloggers and style icons at the moment, in the City newspaper last week. Tavi Gevinson, the American girl behind the blog, is often considered the new wunderkind in the fashion industry as she is she is only 13 years old but has an amazing sense of style and professional knowledge. She even sat front row at New York fashion week and was on the red carpet of this year’s Academy Awards.

Adrianna Jalming, the writer of the article in the City newspaper, is of the opinion that there must be something wrong in the fashion industry if a 13-year old child is one of the greatest fashion icons. She thinks that the hype about style rookie is really crazy and reflects today’s youth-obsessed beauty ideal.

I agree on that point. Sure, Tavi has a really professional knowledge regarding fashion but in the end she is still a child. I think the look of a child shouldn’t be considered a hip and cool style as it emphasises unrealistic beauty ideals such as skinny and never-aging bodies.

I am 26 and during the last year I had to realise that I got my first wrinkles. I hate them! I always remove them on pictures. I know it is ridiculous but it is really hard to ignore beauty ideals and just do your own thing although you know how stupid these ideas of marvellous bodies actually are.

Most people who try to ignore beauty ideals fail. Charlotte Roche, a German-British television presenter and author, often was on TV with hairy armpits. She was attacked so much by the media that she started to shave her armpits because she couldn’t handle the mean critique anymore.

Regarding my first wrinkles, I started to convince myself that they don’t represent something ugly of me. They rather show that I am a person who has fun in life and likes to laugh. They might even unveil that I work hard and reflect on lots of things.

It’s cool that Tavi is so interested in fashion but I think it’s poor that so many people treat a child like the new style god who shows us the way.

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Every fashionista was shocked when the news about Alexander McQueen’s suicide came out. The fashion world has definitely lost one of its greatest talents.

McQueen was known as the bad boy and rebellion in the fashion industry as he was able to interpret often antique themes in a futuristic way like no one else. Always one step ahead! Always next level! Always provocative!

When it comes to trends, McQueen is currently most influential with the pattern houndstooth, which he brought back in his autumn/winter collection 2009. You see it everywhere in every size. I have for instance a coat in houndstooth.

I think rebellions are important in every kind of group, society and system as they question traditional ways of thinking and show alternatives.

Sweden’s most successful designers are no rebellions. Compared with McQueen, they are almost a little bit boring. I don’t want that every Swedish designer becomes totally avant-garde but shouldn’t there be one who is wild and crazy? Swedish designers are fantastic but I think they are shy in an international comparison. Very Swedish somehow! Or as they say in Swedish “lagom är bäst”, which  means something like “moderation is best”.

The saying is linked to the idea of equality. Everybody is supposed to be equal. Don’t think that you are better than the other ones! Equality is important and should be one of the major aims of a society but sometimes I have the feeling that the aspect of diversity is getting lost in Sweden. As if the saying was: don’t think that you are different than the other ones!

When I was new in Sweden we discussed in my film class that many Swedes consider it is cool to be unswedish (osvensk). At that time I couldn’t understand at all why. Not because I thought that everything in Sweden was so fantastic but I was wondering how a culture could be cool or not cool. Today I understand what my classmates and teacher meant. People who want to be unswedish are tired of sameness and monotony.

Regarding fashion, I think Sweden really needs a rebellion or bad boy/girl who dares to be different and unique: someone like McQueen. Such a rebellion would contribute alternative fashion and also alternative ways of thinking, which could increase diversity in other areas, too.

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Robyn is not only known for being one of Sweden’s greatest and most successful musicians at the moment but also for her unique style. Last weekend she even got the prize for style icon of the decade at the ELLE awards.

I think she really deserves the prize because she is always a step ahead and creates trends. In particular her short and platinum blond haircut has been copied by many girls and also guys. I also think that her gender-neutral style is very representative for the 00 decade in Sweden where women with boyish bodies and hairless men have ruled the runways and nightclubs.

Regarding Sweden’s most fashionable men, The Hives should have been awarded. I think their style is like a Macbook… black and white, iconic, simple and always up to date.

Photo 1 from: Hanky

Photo 2 from: Luger

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Pete Doherty should play in Stockholm and Malmö last weekend. SHOULD. Of course, he couldn’t make it because he lost his passport and was “sick”. I smirked when I read about the cancelled concerts and thought about my experiences with the scandal-ridden British rock star. I tried seeing him twice.

The first time he didn’t show up because he was “sick”. The second time he was about eight hours late. When he asked the public to throw money on the scene I decided that I would never go to one of his concerts again. He said that he was so poor and really needed the money.

Anyway, because of Pete Doherty’s visit to Sweden the City newspaper published an article about Swedish bad boys on Friday. The only guy City came up with was the musician Andreas Kleerup. Yes, the guy who did the song “With every heartbeat” with Robyn. The reason for his bad image was his statement “Some people smoke. Other people smoke other stuff” and some rumours about cocaine abuse.

OK, Pete Doherty and Andreas Kleerup have in some way a similar style. A little bit fucked up. A little bit “I don’t care”. But is Kleerup really a classical bad boy? I think he is a real Swede-heart compared to Pete Doherty. No scandals. No anorexic supermodel girlfriends. No fights with band members. The fact that Kleerup has maybe secretly smoked a joint on the toilet doesn’t make him a bad boy, isn’t it? At least not outside Sweden!

But this is something that I like about Sweden. People are so good and innocent…and they always start their concerts in time…

Photo from: Brocco Lee

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People from the south of Sweden often say that Stockholm is full of brats who just think about expensive fashion, slicked back hair and fancy nightclubs. Even if a person doesn’t fulfil this stereotypical picture of a person living in Stockholm he or she is often considered snobbish because of the dialect.

I don’t care for Swedish dialects and if people sound snobbish. However, when some guys from Stockholm and Gothenburg started to party regularly with me and my friends a few weeks ago I realised how much more guys from bigger cities in Sweden care for fashion.

We went out on Friday and during the pre-party one of the new guys changed his shirt eight times (I counted!) while the other ones were talking about their great purple t-shirts.

I wouldn’t say that my friends who are from the south or smaller towns in Sweden don’t care for clothes but they seemed to be more relaxed. Some of them are these typical “jeans plus band t-shirt guys” and some of them have a very classic style. They usually wear a shirt and a tie when they go out. I think they need at most five minutes to get dressed before a party (OK, ten if they have to search in their laundry mountains).

I don’t like clichés and of course not every Swedish guy from a big city changes his shirt eight times before he goes out. However, I think there is a quite remarkable difference how guys from rural regions compared to the ones from cities value clothing and style.

This difference is nothing new but I think it is more remarkable in Sweden than in other countries such as Germany when it comes to guys.

In the end my friend changed his shirt a ninth time and took the one that he tried the second time. He said it would fit best to the topic of the party. By the way, the topic was rainbow…

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Jimmy Choo launches a collection for H&M on November 14 including mostly shoes and accessories. The pieces embody really everything that you can associate with the 80s: leather, glitter, animal prints, fur and heavy jewellery. With the mix of rhinestones and studs the collection is very chic and glamorous but at the same time edgy and cool. Perfect for a night out on the town!

Jimmy Choo’s collection will just be sold in certain H&M stores in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö and Uppsala and on the internet. There will even be a queue system out of the shops because of the great popularity of Jimmy Choo (can it be more Swedish?). In other words, get up early if you want to have a pair of real Jimmy Choo shoes or one of the fantastic clutches.

The collection also includes men’s wear. However, apart from the biker boots I think the pieces are not very exciting. The design is very classic (I think almost too classic for H&M) and the colours range is very dark and simple including mostly black and brown.

However, I like Jimmy Choo’s collection. There is just one thing that really confuses me. Why does it include so many sandals and ballerina flats when the winter is coming and it’s getting colder every day? Are Swedish girls somehow resistant towards cold weather or am I such a wimp?! Actually I often think about that when I am at nightclubs during winter. I always have like ten layers of clothes on me plus warm boots and many Swedish girls wear sandals and short dresses.

How do they do that? Do they secretly change their clothes in the restroom or do they just don’t care? I’ve always wanted to ask some of them but I have changed my mind every time because I don’t want to sound like a 40-year old mother who doesn’t understand young people anymore.

Anyway, if you are not cold in sandals when it’s freezing outside and if you want to have shoes or accessories in the style of 80s you shouldn’t miss the great queue party out of H&M this month.

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