From August 28th to 30th, the three-day Stockholm Fashion Week in Sweden welcomed about 50 ready-to-wear brands and 20 jewellery and accessories brands, with a total of 30 press conferences. This fashion week also made people see more changes in the Swedish fashion industry.
Since its inception in 2005, Stockholm Fashion Week has become one of the major fashion weeks in the Nordic fashion circle. At the biannual event, Sweden's best collection of designers and brands showcase their latest work to media, buyers and fashion leaders from around the world.
Most of the fashion week's press conferences took place at the Grand Hotel in central Stockholm, which is also the main venue for Stockholm Fashion Week. Of course, some brands choose their own stores and some special venues. For example, jewelry designer Maria Nilsdotter chose Carl Johans Church on Skeppsholmen Island.
The overall atmosphere of Stockholm Fashion Week is relatively relaxed, in stark contrast to the busy and compact four fashion weeks. Regrettably, however, many important brands have missed this fashion week, including the Swedish local brand Acne Studios (show at the Paris Fashion Week) and Hope and House of Dagmar.
Increase fashion trade show
Compared to Copenhagen, Oslo and Helsinki Fashion Week, Stockholm Fashion Week is a bit weak in the fierce competition in the Nordic fashion industry. Copenhagen Fashion Week in Denmark has successfully attracted the attention of many fashion lovers around the world in the past few years and has expanded the scale of trade fairs related to Fashion Week. (See "Glory" report: Copenhagen Fashion Week is just around the corner, the Danish fashion industry continues to grow in 2017, and will further expand overseas markets in the future)
Swedish designer Maj-La Pizzelli said: “The biggest gap with Copenhagen Fashion Week is that we don’t have a large fashion trade fair. This is a limiting factor.†She has been active in the Swedish fashion industry for 20 years and worked for the Filippa K brand. Later, as a consultant, he partnered with Jonas Clason in 2011 to launch his own footwear and accessories line, ATP Atelier.
Jennie Rosén, who was appointed CEO of the Swedish Fashion Council six months ago, revealed that in 2019, Fashion Week will work with the Stockholm Fashion District apparel trade fair to transform fashion week into a fusion Fashion events at fashion fairs and trade fairs attract more media and buyers.
Supporting new designer brands
Jennie Rosén added: “Unlike Copenhagen Fashion Week, we don’t receive any financial support from the government. But the fashion industry is Sweden’s pride. Most well-known Nordic fashion brands are from Sweden! We have 60,000 fashion industry players. A total of 300 billion Swedish kronor (about 30 billion euros) in annual sales. In addition, the fashion industry has contributed a lot to the export volume. Overseas Swedish clothing sales have exploded in the past few years, soaring between 2011 and 2018. 90%, an increase of 30% in 2018."
A veteran of the Swedish fashion industry believes that the status of Stockholm Fashion Week has dropped a lot compared to a decade ago. Although there are many local new brands emerging, these brands are more willing to go abroad and develop into the international market.
For countries like Sweden with a population of only 10 million people, the internationalization of the market is particularly important. This is also the reason why the Swedish fashion industry pursues internationalization. Swedish fast fashion giant H&M is one of the pioneers, and since then more emerging retailers and brands have followed their international expansion. Today, a new wave of young designers seems to want to break away from the Swedish functional design and simple elegance.
Erica Blomberg, head of the Swedish Fashion Talents Program, said: “More young designers are emerging, unlike the styles that their predecessors insist on, they emphasize the performance of color, print and creativity in design.â€
The Swedish Fashion Talent Program was launched in 2005 and has supported 84 potential young designers. In the past two years, the program has been limited to a maximum of seven designers per year, half of which specializes in clothing and the other half focused on accessories. These designers have the opportunity to participate in the Stockholm Fashion Week and the Stockholm Fashion District Clothing Fair twice a year, with a year of guidance and business course support.
This season, the Swedish fashion talent program has three brands emerging: the new menswear brand Per G?tesson, Andreas Danielsson's fashion minimalist sportswear brand PRLE, and the design duo Josephine Bergqvist and Livia Schück's environmentally-friendly women's brand Rave Review.