1. Do you have any favourite Swedish fashion designers? If so, why?
Yes, I like a lot of different ones, including but not restricted to Fifth Ave Shoe Repair, Helena Hörstedt, Diana Orving and Göran Sundberg who are artistically strong, creative, fascinating minds, Carin Wester and Acne are both really impressive for their consistency, wearability, concepts, and their capacity to soak up trends from all strands of culture and society (clubs, the street, interior design, film etc) before they enter other fashion designers minds. To name a few...
2. Whats the general fashion vibe on the streets of Sweden?
I prefer to say Stockholm, rather than Sweden, which is what I know. There is most definitely a huge interest in fashion, people are well dressed, inventive with fashion and, I think, quite confident in wearing their styles. Some times Stockholm can be a bit uniform, when something is a hit it is really a hit with a very large part of society from babies to grandmothers. And Swedes to tend to choose the more minimalist designs, less colour, less prints, and quite laid-back, dress-down styles rather than really expressive and elegant designs. But I guess that is a style in itself...
4. What do you think the future is for Swedish fashion?
It is an interesting time with the recession hitting everyone hard but Swedish fashion still being stronger, creatively and comercially, than it ever has been. I think we will, as often in financially hard times see two parallel trends taking fashion in two very different directions: escapism and wearability. There are a lot of brands out there at the moment, unfortunately I am not sure they will all survive. But in general the lower/mid price range that a lot of Swedish labels have chosen to position themselves at will make them successful in a more restrained international market in which luxury really will be redefined in the coming years.
5. How does Stockholm Fashion Week differ from all the other fashion weeks around the world?
I would say Sweden is the strongest new fashion country to have emerged and hit it big internationally in the last five years. Fashion Week by Berns at the end of January is the one platform where you can see all the interesting Swedish designers in their home arena, in the context where they come from and in which they work.
7. How do Swedish magazines reflect the fashion?
When Bon first started out 8 years ago, Swedish fashion wasn't even a scene, very few people took fashion seriously, even fewer had any deeper knowledge of it, and I would say most people interested in or working with culture were a bit ashamed to say that they liked fashion if they did.
Today, thanks to the success of our amazing designers the situation is completely different - fashion is everywhere, in the blogs, in the newspapers, and the magazines. In general, the Swedish media still have a lot to learn when it comes to analysing fashion, for example as a means of expressing your identity. But the interest is most definetly there now, which I find amazing.