Fashion Brands From Sweden

"

It's a small country with only 9 million people. We must put our vision abroad. "

Hakan Strom said.

He is

Chief operating officer.

In October 20th, the Swedish brand held the first fashion show outside Stockholm in Shanghai fashion week.

Cheap Monday used to be a second-hand clothing store in the most obscure urban area of Stockholm. It was only open on weekends.

Until it moved to the main city, it became the gathering place of the street in this city - there are unique denim blended varieties and second-hand clothes.

In 2004, it launched its jeans with a skeletal head and began to expand overseas.

In the same year, it appeared in Urban Outfitters, a chain store in the US.

Over the next 5 years, it has entered 1200 retailers in the world.

In 2008, H&M bought about 500 million Swedish kronor (about 464 million yuan) to buy about half of its shares.

After obtaining the funds, Cheap Monday started a direct store plan. Currently, it has opened an independent concept store in Copenhagen and London.

Its goal is to set up direct stores in important commercial cities around the world.

Now, Strom's mission is to find partners and locations and plan to open a direct store in Shanghai.

But he is just one of the Swedish brand operators who are playing the Chinese market idea.

In September 2012, the founder and marketing director of 9 Swedish brands also came to Shanghai.

This group of people and Cheap Monday's journey is basically the same: suppliers, media interviews, fashion shows...

"The success of H&M has made Swedish people see that fashion has great commercial value."

Anna Sofie Back, Cheap Monday design director to "first financial weekly" said.

They are young brands inspired by H&M, showing great enthusiasm for fashion and their future.

In Back's view, Sweden's fashion is based on practical and commercial value. Unlike Paris and London, designers can only create for creation and then think about business.

As H&M Erling Persson, founder of Hennes in 1947, founded a women's clothing store after returning from an American trip, what he initially wanted to do was actually a small profits but quick turnover business.

In Sweden, fashion was once a neglected industry.

For a long time, the secondary market occupied an important part of Sweden's garment industry.

Anna Sofie Back was laughed at by friends when she was studying fashion design school in 1990s.

This situation did not begin to change until 2000.

That year, when H&M came out of Europe and expanded the fast fashion of parity to the global market, Swedish fashion was born, and people began to turn from practical attention to design. This change began with jeans.

A big reason is that in a country where forestry, agriculture and industry are the main body of the economy,

It is the most indispensable work and life costumes for people.

Cheap Monday is one of the most popular cowboy brands in the fashion world.

Most of its founding members are from bands, including the current cowboy series designer Malmgren.

"At the very beginning, we only wanted to make a black waist tight jeans for punk rock people. At that time we couldn't find such a neutral trousers in other stores."

Malmgren said.

In 2003, it was the first brand to sell color tight jeans, until today similar styles can be seen in all kinds of brand shops.

But as jeans get tighter, Cheap Monday is starting to change.

Anna Sofie Back is a designer influenced by conceptual design. She has received her master's degree from the Saint Martin School of design in England.

In her 12 years in London, she founded 2 brands, one focusing on concepts and one on business.

After joining Cheap Monday in 2009, "we are going to find some frictional, controversial, intricate and interesting themes every season."

Back said.

She named the new season's style "alien", through the clothing with old clothes shop to express those exceptions that exist outside the category of two yuan, such as gender and UFO.

The marketing way of Cheap Monday is always the same treason and radicalism.

In June 2012, it held a promotional event. The designer put 30 pairs of jeans on the West Coast soil, Stockholm forest and the roof of Cheap Monday office to make it natural change. Then the numbered Customized by Nature jeans were sold in the designated stores. The first stop was Paris.

The Swedish Cowboy brand is remembered as well as the Nudie Jeans founded in 2001 and the Dr. Denim founded in 2003.

They also use Cheap Monday as a distributor in the store store. They have direct stores or agents in the United States, Britain, Germany, Australia and Japan.

Like H&M, they advertised themselves as affordable fashions.

"H&M is like setting a benchmark for the Swedish clothing industry. People always think that clothes should be the price, so high priced clothing brands are hard to develop in Sweden."

Back said.

Her other implication is that H&M, like IKEA, defines Swedish design - simple, practical, but tasteful.

Gina Tricot also followed this guideline.

Founded in 1997, the founder of the Appelqvist couple's dream at that time was to sell clothes to the largest consumer group, so they always sell women's clothing with low price and many styles.

At present, there are 120 people in the headquarters of Gina Tricot, half of whom are designers. Almost every day, new products enter the store.

It has 180 direct outlets worldwide, half in Sweden and half overseas.

In Sweden, the coverage of Gina Tricot is almost the same as that of H&M.

As the definition of Swedish fashion began to change, they gradually established their status and personality.

ACNE jeans, which are also made of jeans, are now priced at around us $300, and their designs are no longer just "practical".

In 2012, creative director Jonny Johansson collaborated with creative director Alber Elbaz of Lanvin to design advanced custom jeans.

The Swedish designer affirmed by fashion is also Sandra Backlund.

After winning the first prize at the Yale Fashion Festival in France in 2007, she began appearing more frequently on the T stage of international fashion.

In addition to personal brands, Sandra has also worked with Louis Vuitton, Emilio Pucci and other special orders.

This is a vibrant era in Swedish fashion. Designers are turning their ideas into business, and even more.

After running a second-hand store, Claes Bondelid founded a cowboy clothing store with its surname Bondelid.

In the past 10 years, the brand has opened 140 stores in the world, and now it can sell 70 thousand garments every month.

But 2 years ago, he withdrew from the company and wanted to do something for himself again.

"When it comes to canvas shoes, everyone thinks of Converse. They are either street or sports.

But there must be someone who needs something different.

Bondelid said.

Now, he has settled hundreds of retail stores and plans to sell Claes Goran canvas shoes from 2013.

At the same time, like other Swedish brand founders, the Chinese market is also his goal.

Previously, these brands would regard China as a factory.

Now, their target is this market.

During the trip to Shanghai, H&M and ONLY and VERO MODA introduced their experiences and characteristics of the Chinese market to them.

"If they hear about their development in China, they will feel that the market is really seductive, but we are not sure what to do."

Polarn O. Pyret brand President Maria Oqvist said.

She came to China 10 years ago to find factories. This is the first time she has come to sell.

Now, her idea is to reduce investment and risk, starting with e-commerce dealers.

For this strange market, Gina Tricot also intends to abandon the usual mode of direct shop and find dealer agents.

Men's brand Oscar Jacobson (OJ) has entered the Chinese market since 2011.

But it is still in the stage of nurturing China's market demand, and plans to cooperate with golf courses and high-end shopping malls in the future.

Relatively speaking, Cheap Monday has more advantages.

4 years ago, it entered the NOVO, IT and Souce stores, but it developed slowly.

Some dealers took the initiative in finding Hakan Strom's plan to open 15 stores a year.

After its acquisition by H&M, it began to reduce its cooperation with existing distributors in China.

Fang Renjie, NOVO's CEO, remembered that he was attracted by Cheap Monday's color jeans. But now, Cheap Monday may turn to H&M stores or independent stores.

Bjorn Borg seems to have found its way earlier.

Its founder, Bjorn Borg, was a Swedish tennis player. His skills and figure in 1980s surpassed Sweden's rock stars.

In August 2012, it opened its first store in China in Shanghai's Jiu Guang Department store, and started online sales through Taobao mall.

"This is the first step for us to enter the Chinese market.

We are committed to doing long-term business here, and will set up more stores in Shanghai and other parts of China. "

Bjorn Borg CEO Arthur Engel said.

There are more Swedish brands, like Bjorn Borg, which have ambitions for China and larger overseas markets.

"Swedish fashion is already in the global fashion industry. Although it may be a small part, it does have a place."

OJ sales director Johan Moller said.

Indeed, there are not only IKEA and H&M in Sweden.