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Monthly archives: June 2011

A question of shorts

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My summer look this year. Shorts it is!

Every year there is a big discussion (I’m using the term “big” loosely here) in Stockholm about whether it’s OK to wear shorts in the city. I’m a bit confused about this since men’s fashion has shown men in suit jacket and shorts for many seasons now, which is therefore a perfectly acceptable look. I myself have three pairs of Jil Sander shorts, one of them (I’m not kidding) in mint green leather.

My colleague at Rodeo, Johan Wirfält, wrote about this last year as a response to the editor in chief of King Magazine, Per Nilsson, who emphatically concluded it wasn’t OK to wear shorts in Stockholm city.

This year the discussion was taken up by the hipster site throwmeaway.se and both of them see the shorts taboo as a sort of anti-gay sentiment. It is just “too gay” to wear shorts as a man (because as Kristofer Andersson at Throw Me Away observes, this is a ban only of male bare legs).

I really couldn’t care less whether it is seen as gay or not gay to be a shorts guy, but we must be more precise here – it is not seen as gay to wear cargo shorts in the city, just a bit too casual for inner city life perhaps. Rather we are talking about tailored shorts and we are talking about very short shorts, showing quite a bit of leg.

Personally I’m definitely going for the short tailored shorts look this summer. I’ve already road tested my mint green leather ones (although admittedly they are a bit tricky to pull off) and is trying to find the right moment to don my “faux” double breasted suit jacket with matching shorts.

This is the last post from me for a while, but I hope I will see you sometime after summer. All the best – and don’t be afraid of the shorts.

Daniel Björk - Fashion

June 17, 2011

Swedish fashion publications

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An image from the book Nordic Women in Chanel. Photo: Peter Farago and Ingela Klemetz Farago

One way to get to know a country’s fashion scene is by reading the publications that come out of it. And with that I mean both magazines and books.

Back in the day, there used to be a magazine called Stockholm New, which turned more and more into a fashion publication as the years passed, but it is now defunct. There was also Bibel, the fashion mag that in many ways ignited interest in fashion in Sweden and made it “hip”. Had they been out today I would’ve told you to get a hold of them.

So what is out there these days? There are the big titles such as Swedish Elle, which together with Damernas Värld (and especially their “fashion only” title DV mode, which comes out three times a year) form the commercial nexus of Swedish fashion media. Perhaps we should add Plaza Magazine to this mix, which during the last decade has been constantly rising in stature.

These days, I mainly work with Bon Magazine, a quarterly magazine in Sweden and a biannual one internationally. I also write for Rodeo Magazine’s website and they are also doing a biannual these days, in Swedish though.

The closest we have to a Stockholm New would have to be Stockholm S/S/A/W which catalogues the collections each season.

On the men’s side there are mainly two titles, Café and King Magazine, both of them geared towards a mainstream audience.

When it comes to books there are a couple of books in Swedish that might be interesting, should you be able to read it. For a good overview of Swedish fashion writing, try Sexton svenska texter om mode, an anthology of 16 fashion articles, including two by yours truly.

Susanne Pagold used to write about fashion for Dagens Nyheter, the main morning paper in Sweden, and she wrote a book called De långas sammansvärjning (The conspiration of the tall), which is a very interesting time document when it comes to the slightly defensive and negative tone people used to employ when writing about fashion before the Noughties. For a counterpoint, Martina Bonnier’s Fashionista is a style guide from the editor-in-chief of Damernas Värld, and earlier this year, Sofia Hedström, my colleague at Svenska Dagbladet, released Modemanifestet: de stilsmartas handbok, a book about a global movement for using clothes more responsibly.

There are obviously photography books as well. Thomas Klementsson is a friend of mine but also a brilliant photographer and I wrote the foreword to his book Arkiv. Currently I’ve just rounded up work on a forthcoming book by Carl Bengtsson who has been working since the Seventies – photographs will be exhibited at Röhsska museet in Göteborg in September. These are only two recent ones. I could add the upcoming book with Chanel clothes and Nordic models which has been produced by Peter Farago and Ingela Klemetz Farago, and which also will spawn an exhibition at Fotografiska, opening on July 1.

So far I haven’t written a book myself, partly because I’ve never really been interested in writing a style guide or anything else that is supposedly commercial enough. But who knows, things might change… I did have a good idea the other day, but I’m not promising anything.

Daniel Björk - Fashion

June 14, 2011

Acne Paper in our hearts

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A possible cover from the pressrelease about the upcoming issue 12 of Acne Paper. Photo: Acne

Since I’ve been writing about fashion since before Acne was born I know it has not always been the company that the world abroad knows. Not that there’s anything strange with that, it’s quite possibly one of the strengths of Acne that they have been able to change so drastically. Even if they don’t and won’t change as much as they have in the past, this openness is evident in for example the collaboration with Candy Magazine (they did a transgender collection together).

But disregarding the fact that Acne makes actual clothes that people seem to love it is difficult to understate the importance of Acne Paper. I remember when the first issue came out and it felt very nice, Seventies in its feel it made me think of photographers like Francesco Scavullo.

It was with the magazine that Acne became the Acne of today. The magazine gave the brand a story it had lacked – it created a world for the brand. It also captured the imagination of the fashion world. Sofia Coppola might’ve namechecked her Acne jeans in French Vogue in December 2004, but in autumn 2005 Acne Paper was born and really made people look twice at that Swedish jeans company.

That first issue did come across more like a publicity vehicle for the brand than it does today since the fashion stories were all shot with Acne clothes. But already in the second issue, it became a proper magazine, and since then it has gone from being a PR stunt to an important voice in the fashion media.

It is a very rare bird in the fashion world, even if other brands have done magazines, mainly because of the strong vision of the editor-in-chief, Thomas Persson.

The next issue is out the second week of July, but in the meantime here are some of my favourite covers (at least for the moment).

Acne Paper No 4 - Playfulness Photo: Benjamin Alexander Huseby


The cover is a reference to a photo of the legendary eccentric Quentin Crisp, shot by Joseph Mulligan.

Acne Paper No 6 - Exoticism Photographer: Terry Tsiolis


I loved this mix of East London club kid and something much more savage.

Acne Paper No 7 - Tradition Photo: Daniel Jackson


This shot of model Guinevere van Seenus is more painting than fashion shot and shows how daring Acne Paper really is.

Daniel Björk - Fashion

June 8, 2011

Online shops for Swedish fashion

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So you love Swedish fashion but you’re not sure how to get a hold of it? Or maybe you are just vaguely interested in Swedish fashion designers and want to find out more about the looks and the prices?

In any case, I decided to get you started. Fashion is many things: cultural phenomenon, artful endeavour, beauty ideal, and yes – shopping. So indulge should you find something that tickle your fancy.

The webshop for Tjallamalla.

Tjallamalla

Tjallamalla is a store on Södermalm in Stockholm and it’s been introducing young Swedish designers to the world for more than ten years. Shop cute clogs from There goes the neighbourhood or flowery dresses from Carin Wester.

Aplace web shop.

Aplace

The sleek style and selection at Aplace is a pretty good summary of Swedish design in general. It’s cool and mainly minimalist and sensual and most of the important brands are represented, from Hope to Diana Orving.

Nelly.com ships to the Nordic countries, Germany and the Netherlands.

Nelly.com

The Nelly selection covers more bases than just Sweden, and only ships to the Nordic countries and Germany and the Netherlands, but plans for a European rollout is in the works.

There are other ways to shop as well, since many of the smaller and more interesting brands have their own e-shops. This is true of the ultrahip menswear brand Our Legacy, as well as fashion favourites Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair (both menswear and womenswear), last year’s Guldknappen winners Hope (men and women), avant-garde designers Nakkna (men and women), artsy but wearable Diana Orving, up and coming denim brand The Local Firm and of course Acne.

Daniel Björk - Fashion

June 3, 2011