Style in Sweden

Sweden’s best bloggers were awarded by Veckorevyn last weekend and this year’s great winner is the 18-year old Foki who moved from Thailand to Sweden seven years ago. I think her blog and fashion style is very interesting and cool as it reflects her Asian background but at the same time many Swedish details.

In particular her outfit at the prize gala summarises this combination. On the one hand, a very dressed up Swedish girl wearing a tube top from Gino Trikot, a mini skirt from Melba and a hair bow from Monki (altogether Swedish shops). On the other hand, her neon pink and neon blue outfit clearly differs from the dark dresses of most other girls as it has this colourful Asian touch.

Her blog has a similar focus: Swedish with Asian influences. I like this style because I think it is very important to keep the roots as an immigrant. Sometimes I meet people who want to become more Svensson than the Swedes and I never understand why. Sure, integration is important but do we have to dance around a maypole and sing songs about little frogs?? Don’t misunderstand me. Celebrating midsummer is fun but I think that not even Swedish people expect us to become hardcore Svenssons. My impression is that many Swedes rather enjoy it if people from other countries can contribute new aspects to the culture of this country.

I think it is much more exciting to mix cultures than to copy them. Do it the Foki way! Even though her clothes and the content of her blog are a little bit too girly for my taste I think she does a great job when combining different cultures.

Congratulations, Grattis and Glückwunsch from Mareike!

Picture from Stockholm streetstyle feber

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Film critics have praised Noomi Rapace for her role as Lisbeth Salander in the movies “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and the recently launched “The Girl who played with Fire”. Now Swedish ELLE even considers the 29-year old actress as Sweden’s new style icon.

I agree that Noomi looks interesting. Her face somehow reminds me of the 1980s Kate Bush and she is definitely a breath of fresh air in Sweden’s entertainment world. On the other hand, I am not sure if I really see a style icon. I mean what is typical for Noomi Rapace? I am thinking of something like Lykke Li’s hair bun or the 1960s style of The Hives. A particular feature that everybody relates to a person and that becomes so popular that people imitate it.

Isn’t it rather Lisbeth Salander who is the style icon? I think the character in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy is so modern and interesting that it definitely has the potential to become a style icon in Sweden.

Lisbeth Salander embodies many characteristics that young people are striving for. She is independent, smart, mysterious, an updated feminist and a modern Pippi Longstocking. Similar is her style. She is mostly dressed in black, often wears clothes that neither are typical male nor typical female and looks edgy and hard and at the same time soft and pretty.

Her piercings and tattoos are of course a question of taste. Either you like it or you hate. Personally, I took out my piercings a long time ago and I don’t want them back. But I think they really suit Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander.

However, I am not really convinced that Noomi Rapace is Sweden’s next big style icon. She is an excellent actress and has charisma but I don’t see anything special when it comes to her style. She seems to be one of these celebrities who don’t care so much for clothes but still look fantastic. Or is this image maybe that certain je ne sais quoi that makes her a style icon?

Noomi Rapace in the latest ELLE.

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I wasn’t surprised that Swedish lifestyle magazine Café gave the prize for best-dressed man to The Hives singer Pelle Almqvist this year. His style is chic and Rock ’n’ Roll at the same time, which I think is really cool. I love the 1960s look of The Hives. The best thing about Pelle’s style is his new haircut as it looks like a combination of Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly.

It is just somehow strange that only Pelle won this prize. I mean the other band members wear exactly the same outfits on stage. However, they are not jealous. “I told them about the prize when we were eating a falafel at home in Fagersta. But they just think it’s cool. They are quite comfortable with pushing Pelle so that he can deal with stuff like that”, told Pelle Café.

Pelle Almqvist. Chic and…

…Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Best-dressed Swedish woman is actress Josephine Bornebusch known from for instance the Swedish comedy programme “Parlamentet”. The prize for international style icon went to actress Malin Åkerman who was in the films “The Proposal” and “Watchmen”. Jonny Johansson from the Swedish label Acne received the prize for best designer 2009 and this year’s newcomer is the label “Uniforms for the Dedicated”, which is an international platform for musicians, designers and illustrators.

Josephine Bornebusch.

Malin Åkerman.

Uniforms for the Dedicated.

Further prizes awarded by Café in 2009:

Sport’s label: J. Lindberg’s Sky

Online shop: www.fever.se

Accessory label: Happy Socks

Sunglasses: Persol

Jeans Label: The Local Firm

Shoe label: Dr. Martens

Pictures from Calle Stoltz/ Magzine Café

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Swedish ELLE and daily Dagens Nyheter published the first pictures of the second Sex and the City film this week. The pictures are really hilarious because the girls are dressed in hardcore 80s style. Carrie looks like Madonna in “Like a Virgin”, Miranda like an 80s business woman with big shoulder pads, Charlotte’s dress is completely Miami Vice pastel-coloured and Samantha has a huge white blond poodle perm.

A few days ago I write about the comeback of the 80s and that the only thing missing is the poodle perm. Voilà there it is!

I am wondering in which context theses scenes are embedded in the movie. Some flashback to the 80s when the Sex and the City girls were in their twenties? Well, we have to wait until May 2010 when the second Sex and the City movie will be released.

Anyway, here you can find some pictures and a clip:

ELLE (pictures)

and

Dagens Nyheter (clip)

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Swedish model Ida Pyk launched her first collection this week featuring shirts with pictures of Nicolas Sarkozy, Osama bin Laden or Swedish politician Maud Olofsson on them. For those who are not that into clothes with politicians or terrorists she designed shirts and tights with cocky texts such as “I was anorexic – but I’m ok now”.

She says that she wants to provoke with her collection. I think this collection is not provocative. It’s just tacky! Apart from that I don’t find the clothes fashion-forward, interesting or modern at all it might be exaggerated to put Maud Olofsson next to Osama bin Laden. I am generally not a supporter of this Swedish politician but that’s just wrong.

When it comes to her “anorexic” shirts and tights I’m wondering what Ida Pyk wants to tell us?! She said in an interview with Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter that she got the idea when she was insulted to be anorexic in her blog on ELLE. She is surely not the first model who is considered as anorexic and if she has problems with that kind of critique she has probably chosen the wrong career.

It is not the first time that Ida Pyk, who lives and works in Paris, caused a stir with her clothes. However, I found the dress with “I fucked Kleerup” somehow funny (in particular when Swedish singer Håkan Hellström asked if she could wear the same dress with his name on it) but she has gone too far with her collection.

I don’t reject the idea of being political in fashion (I’m a political scientist) but the clothes should be smart and interesting. A friend of mine said once “Widerstand braucht Kreativität”, which literally means “resistance needs creativity”. I think that’s exactly what this collection needs: a little bit more creativity. And seriously, who wants to wear a shirt with Sarkozy on it???

See more on Ida Pyk’s homepage and in her look book

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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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I have seen a lot of people in sailor outfits in the clubs here in Skåne during the last weeks. First I thought that gay parties must have become enormously popular but my Swedish friends explained me that these people don’t come from the latest gay pride and that they don’t wear sailor clothes.

“These people are Swedish pupils who celebrate their secondary school graduation”, said my boyfriend Gustav.

Celebrating graduation in cute sailor dresses? How cool is that!? When I graduated from secondary school we had a Mexico theme. I had a sombrero on my head and wore a t-shirt with Speedy Gonzales on it.

Here’s a picture with my friend Gianna:

In comparison to Germany, the Swedish secondary school graduates are much more dressed up. The guys wear a black and white suites and the girls a white dress. Everybody wears a student hat, which I find looks like a sailor hat. I’m so intrigued by these outfits. Too bad, that I heard about the Swedish sailor look six years after my secondary school graduation.

Here’s my flat mate Johan with his friends celebrating their secondary school graduation last year.

I’m writing my Master’s thesis at the moment so I could wear something similar when I celebrate my graduation. Well, maybe without the hat. I think that would be a little bit ridiculous at my age (I’m 25).

I’m wondering why secondary school graduates exactly wear this outfit. Let me know if you know more about the background.

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