Since September last year, I have lived
in Skåne, southern Sweden, in and around the little town of Lund. The Swedish chapter
in my book of life has now come to an end, and so like the end of any chapter,
I am now reflecting on what I have learned, what I found interesting and what I
would like to take on board (as well as leave well and truly on the Swedish
side of the North Sea). Yes, they are nearly all blonde, blue eyed and
intimidatingly attractive; yes, they love IKEA; and no, I haven’t met one
single porn star. Here’s some other stuff I did learn:
Less
is more
Surprisingly to some, the Swedes wear
more than just painted clogs, pinafores and knee socks with tassels these days
(although two Swedes I know do actually wear clogs in their day-to-day
activities…). Although the traditional dress is colourful and decorative,
modern Swedish fashion is quite the opposite, known for its clean lines, cool
tones, minimalist features and quality fabrics. H&M dominates the high
street, exhibited in my Swedish friend’s annoyance with Lund town after
discovering it ONLY hosted one store. Other brands have led the way in the
global representation of Swedish fashion, a few of my faves were Acne, CheapMonday, Monki and Filippa K.
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| Filippa K |
It could be down to the frustrating
level of natural attractiveness of the general population, but the Swedes seem
to have effortless style: There’s no ‘tacky’, no ‘flamboyant’ and no ‘tasteless’
in their fashion vocabulary. Their style seems to combine functionality with
beauty, creating looks that could make the transition from day wear to night
wear with ease, very much unlike the transformation that the Brits undergo
to
get ready to hit the tiles, from a smart office caterpillar to an (often
grotesque) butterfly clad in spider like false lashes, streaky fake tans, 4
inch heels and dresses that show more cellulite than would be shown on BBC1
before 21.00. The Swede’s diurnal outfits most often consist of spray-on black
trousers over (leather heeled boots for the girls or) simple converse trainers,
teamed with thick knit jumpers in creams and greys, crisp white shirts, or dull
coloured t-shirts (add huge knit scarves for winter) and usually topped with a
head of ice blonde hair and a suspicious tan. Simple, yet lagom.
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| Cheap Monday for The Buffalo Exchange |
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| Swedish street style |
As for interior design, Swedish
style creates spaces that are indistinguishable between a friendly family home and
a swanky city apartment. Lots of white walls, pale colour furniture, thick
sheep skin rugs, bright paintings to add colour where needed, odd feature
ornaments (one Swedish living room I sat in had a sprayed gold moose head on
the wall…) and of course a few IKEA items. Compared to the often fussy, frilly
and over-done British interiors, Swedish homes give some space to breathe and a
clear mind to think. Again, mainly functional yet quietly beautiful.
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| Swedish living room |
This style could also be
due to Swedish society’s position on the gray scale between communism and a
dictatorship, on which it sits quite firmly around the point of egalitarianism,
and hence when the mantra is “everyone is equal”, it’s hard for flamboyance to
have room to spread its wings. In the book Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert,
she writes “every city has a single word that
defines it, that identifies most people who live there”, which included New
York City’s word = ACHIEVE; Los
Angeles = SUCCEED; Naples = FIGHT; and Stockholm = CONFORM. When a country likes
to stick to the safety of the herd, I suppose it subsequently invests its
energy in, and hence stream lines its style to be; very good at what lies in
the middle ground. Nothing too brash, fussy or tacky, but still with some
interesting features, functionality and elegance.
Perhaps it’s finally time to
grow up to Swedish standards and get rid of my gold sequin mini-dress, neon lava
lamp, purple walls, floral head bow… blue plastic door beads… red polka dot
shirt… tribal pattern platform heels… and… the list goes on. I think the local
charity shops are definitely going to appreciate the “less is more” idea I’m
taking home... less for me, more for them.
