Frida Gustavsson is our latest top model. Photo: Liselotte Watkins
Swedish girls have a reputation for being beautiful. Their look is supposedly one of natural and clean beauty, fresh and light, rather than dark and brooding.
In fashion Swedish girls are obviously in demand, being both blonde and caucasian (the fashion industry prefers their women blonde, but hopefully things are becoming more diverse), with model agencies such as Mikas and Stockholmsgruppen scouting many successful models year after year.
The world’s first supermodel, Lisa Fonssagrives, was born Lisa Birgitta Bernstone and raised in Uddevalla, Sweden, and yes, she was a blonde. But the natural and clean look wasn’t that in in the Forties, instead she cultivated a sophisticated and distinguished glamour, perfectly suited for the times.
Fastforward to the early Nineties when Emma Wiklund (then Sjöberg) made campaigns for Versace and appeared in music videos such as George Michaels Too Funky. A bit later Mini Andén and Caroline Winberg managed to rack up in impressive roster of clients and publications.
But what about now? At the moment the top 50 models in the world according to Models.com only welcomes one Swede (unless you count Sigrid Ågren, whose father is Swedish). To my surprise I must say, since I in addition to Frida Gustavsson (at number 35) expected to find Sara Blomqvist there, but she must have fallen off the list.
Frida Gustavsson is one of the best runway models I’ve seen in a while, she has such a great walk on the catwalk. She is incredibly tall, almost too tall for a model (yes, there is such a thing), but she’s done Vogue in the US, the UK, France, Italy and Germany and advertising campaigns for Marc Jacobs, Paul & Joe, Etro among others. Let’s just say Frida’s quite successful. She’s also very young. Born in 1993, she turns 18 in June.
So yes, the Swedish model is still going strong after all these years.
A year is a long time in fashion. Designers can show up to four ready-to-wear collections (spring/summer, pre-autumn, autumn/winter, resort), the turnover of trends occurs at an alarming rate, and new names constantly crop up as older ones fade away (or become “establishment”). While I wouldn’t describe Swedish fashion itself as happening at breakneck speed, it’s certainly been caught up in a whirlwind this year that now has several labels, names and styles on the lips (and backs!) of many around the world. Read more » >>
