Stockholm Fashion Week: Why We're Finally Paying Attention

Marie Claire's Fashion Features Director Victoria Moss explains why Stockholm Fashion Week is finally being taken seriously, and which brands you need to look out for

The traditional rounds of Fashion Week might almost be upon us – NYC starts this coming Thursday, whilst the flags have literally been raised for London’s second leg of the fashion month (just check out the banners floating over Oxford Street) – but over in Sweden, they’ve already checked out what they’re going be wearing in Spring 2014.

Stockholm Fashion Week may be a fledgling 8 years young, but its stable of covetable and crucially, commercial brands have seen it secure the attention of buyers and press alike. This week buyers from Browns, Urban Outfitter, Harvey Nichols, my-wardrobe and MyTheresa were in town, super bloggers Bryan Boy and Rumi Neely of Fashiontoast were propping up the front row whilst Le Baron and NY, NY (who regularly host events at NYC/London/Paris Fashion Weeks) made sure the style set had somewhere suitably fabulous to party.

So why is Swedish style so damn cool?

You only have to walk through the airport in Stockholm to start getting a serious Swede fashion crush. Not only is everyone – in the words of Derek Zoolander – really, really, good looking, they look super-chic rocking that perfectly-pared back style. Think utilitarian hipster (it’s like someone scooped up the residents of Dalston, gave them a good wash, brushed their hair, trimmed their beards and put them back in their neatly ironed clothes).

Swedish fashion is something one can really get quite obsessed with – you only have to look at the cult success story of Acne (a brand so cool that it’s even managed to magnificently transcend having the same name as greasy teen skin) to see the affect.

Which hot Swedes should you be watching out for?

The three sisters behind House of Dagmar, having been snapped up by both Net-a-Porter and my-wardrobe in the last year, continue to position themselves as the queens of a quirky knit and cool print. Their SS14 collection was classily pared back in a chic palate of grey, white and black, while the ikat print knitted mini dresses were particularly lust-worthy.

Keeping in the monochrome theme, Altewaisaome (founded in 2009 by friends Natalia Altewai and Randa Saome) showed off some beautifully relaxed tailoring (think slouchy white silk blouses with sheer detailing) and chic narrow fitting midi skirts. While at Back, Ann-Sofie Back’s, diffusion line (which is enjoying a great return to form), she ran with the current theme for sportswear infused style, her layered tangy orange and super sized logo tees contrasted against slouchy below the knee length skirts showed her keen knack of creating instant cool.

And that’s the key element of Swedish fashion. it’s wearable cool – clean lines with a commercial sense. Brilliantly, these brands also fall into the contemporary bridge category – which means that getting your hot-Swede on is supremely affordable too. Super-cool, no? 50 dresses that changed the fashion industry forever...

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Victoria Moss is a freelance fashion and lifestyle writer. Previously fashion director at the Evening Standard, she’s held positions at the Telegraph, InStyle and Marie Claire. She’s written for The Times, The Sunday Times, Vogue, ELLE, Stylist & Grazia among others. She lives in London with her husband, daughter and French Bulldog, Betty. Victoria also writes the weekly Substack newsletter, Everything is Content.