Sweden Shopping List

I am heading to Sweden today for three weeks and as excited as I am about seeing family and old friends, I also have quite a few things on my shopping list. Hard to visit Sweden and not have a long shopping list, really.

News trouser

First, I plan on finally buying a pair of Hope's News trouser. I have tried them on at Table of Contents and fell in love. But after a quick peruse of Hope's Swedish website, I realized that I could save myself some dough by purchasing in the motherland, and getting the 25% VAT back helps as well.

Hope: pre-Fall

I also saw that Hope has a pair of monk-strap shoes in their pre-fall collection. Hallelujah! Someone has them - no longer do I have to simply covet the vintage pair worn by Clemence Poesy at the Acne show at Paris fashion week. These do require a try-on, also because they are quite masculine and I'm not sure I'm chic enough (not being French and all) to pull off such a manly item without looking silly. We shall see.

And I hope to find Wood Wood's Aino short. Scandinavians don't love shorts (it is quite cold there) but maybe they've made an exception and stock them for the tourists. No one in Portland carries this style and I am not sure which size would work best. I am hoping that the trusty NK (glorious Swedish department store for the uninitiated) has them.

And lastly, I think I need to buy a Fjällräven raincoat. I have the Stutterheim and while I do love it, it is quite heavy and really only necessary on those downpour days. Also my 4-year-old has a Fjällräven raincoat and I find myself coveting her jacket pretty much every time she wears it. So, I'd say it's well time for me to get my own waxed cotton jacket. It is more lightweight and feminine than the Stutterheim and actually comes in women's sizes. Another downside to the Stutterheim is the unisex sizing - the sleeves on mine are incredibly too long and not really hemmable. (Despite all this, I do believe the Stutterheim raincoat is STILL a great coat. Not sure it's worth all that money but it's damn nice. And it supports the local economy of the lovely Borås.)

Hej då, kompisar! Goodbye, friends! see you in July.

Swedish raincoats from Stutterheim

To go with the Rachel Comey rain boots from yesterday, I have been in search of a great rain jacket. Not too shiny, not too tech-y, not too short and most importantly, no Velcro!

On my first year in Portland, my rain jacket was actually a ski jacket shell that was covered in Velcro and wreaked havoc on all my beautiful knit scarves and even the sweaters I had on underneath. After that year, I upgraded to a Gore-tex zip up that while great in rain felt like I was wearing a plastic bag the rest of the time and it only went to my waist, which was a major problem. Last year I found a great fishtail jacket with a hood, generous length and no Velcro. Problem is if it's really really raining, it's only a coated cotton, so it doesn't always hold up so well. And I always wish it had a little bit of lining, a shell isn't always so warm.

Fortunately, I recently found the perfect raincoat. Unfortunately, it is close to $700.

Stutterheim raincoats are handmade in Borås, Sweden (birthplace of my one and only) and even bear the signature of the seamstress sewing them together.  Alexander Stutterheim started making raincoats out of his apartment after he found his grandfather's old one and decided to replicate it with a better fit...or so the story goes. He insists there is
"no Gore-tex. no Velcro. no mass production. no straps or strings dangling from every seam."

He even goes so far as to bill it as
"the last raincoat you will ever need."

Their tagline is "melancholy at its driest" and he means it, all seams are taped and it is wind and waterproof, yet so streamlined in its design.  I guess Stutterheim decided the only way to live with all the rain in Scandinavia is to embrace it.

Out in the elements

The good news is that the unlined version, the Stockholm, is $295 (only!) while the Arholma, the one with lining, is $695 on the American site. Prices in Swedish kronor aren't much lower: $200 and $600 respectively. Guess that's the price of being made in Sweden versus made in China; it's true. And from what I can tell the shipping to the US is free.

They also have a boutique in Stockholm called Regn (rain in Swedish), which sounds amazing. Word is that Stutterheim is working on a rain boot prototype, again with the highest quality in mind. Haven't seen photos yet but will be sure to share them once I have. Stutterheim raincoats can be found here. And be sure to read his story too, he's quite a quirky guy.

Stutterheim couple

Rooney Mara in Givenchy

Although I'm still not sure how I feel about Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander in the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (I loved Noomi Rapace in the Swedish version), I loved the Givenchy white cutout dress she wore to the NYC premiere. Delicate and tough all at the same time! And the detail shots really show what a work of art this dress is. Kudos to Rooney Mara's stylist, well done. Very much looking forward to seeing David Fincher's take on this dark thriller.

Muuto teapot and mugs

I am loving my new "bulky" teapot and mugs in dandelion yellow from Scandinavian design collective Muuto. A cookie jar and sugar are also part of the collection, which is available in grey, white and yellow.

Muuto is slowing taking over my home as I now have multiple pieces from them including: lights, flower pots, fruit bowl, and some great wool storage bins made from recycled plastic that I use for toy storage.

And I have several items on my wishlist - mainly lights:

Muuto is sold at DWR and other small design boutiques.

ACNE SS12 - London Fashion Week

Acne Spring/Summer 2012 really looks great. I would think it was an old Helmut Lang show if I didn't know who it was. Vogue thought so too.

And ombre hair is apparently here to stay.

those striped Hasbeens

I mentioned these a little while back after spotting them being worn by the founder of Swedish Hasbeens on a feature showcasing her apartment (in the Swedish home magazine Residence). They are finally available and would be adorable with any Winter outfit.

And if you're feeling really adventurous, they also come in Rainbow (!) And all sales on these boots actually benefit the LGBT-movement (!!)

Unfortunately the black/white version is only avaialbe on the Hasbeens site in a size 40, but they have them on endless.com if you are interested.

via www.swedishhasbeens.com

blogs I enjoy

Having a close connection to Scandinavia, I sometimes end up on different new sites or blogs that come from that world. So I thought I'd share a couple blogs I've come across that I've been really into of late.

emmas.blogg.se

The first is one of the top blogs in Sweden by a woman called Emma. I know almost nothing about her except that it's a pretty famous blog in Stockholm and she has many advertisers and sponsors. And she even has sponsored posts every so often. That said, it's an awesome blog to look at it for home design inspiration as well as for objets from the clean, "Scandi" world.

Simple Blueprint

One of the other blogs I'm into is put together by a Swedish-American woman named Joanna Swanson who lives in Stockholm. Hers is more fashion and art inspiration as well as details about all the exotic locales she has traveled to and the fabulous hotels and resorts she has stayed at. She recently put together a city guide to Stockholm for design*sponge. Above is an image taken from her site of a hotel on Gotland in Sweden called Fabriken Furillen.

Brinja Copenhagen

And one of my absolute favorite blogs is by a woman named Brinja who lives in Copenhagen. She has a boutique in Copenhagen of the same name, I believe. And not only is she always posting pictures of these amazing meals she has had (see above) but she also just had a baby and is now posting pictures of her baby in the most adorable handmade clothes. Her main blog theme is a days-of-the-week outfits log where she highlights either different friends of hers in Copenhagen, other blogging friends or even her own baby! I also love seeing all the pictures of this miniature dollhouse version of her apartment that she has made by hand: she is uber-creative!

lycklig lykke li

The Lykke Li album Youth Novels is one of my favorites. Not only because she's Swedish and clearly very cool (here seen posing in Acne as part of her new spokesperson status for them) but also because her music makes her sound way older than her 23 years.

She has just written a song for the New Moon soundtrack. It is UNREAL. Such a great song. I am reeling over it. And just discovered that when she'd been asked to write the song for the movie, she was actually pretty unsure about being part of something so big-budget-Hollywood. Then she saw a pre-screening of the movie and fell so in love with the story that she became COMPELLED to write it. Yeah, the song is that good.

Another reason she's cool - her name is sort of a play-on-words in Swedish. Lycklig means happy.