Swedish fashion industry booming
It's Swedish Fashion Week in Stockholm with well known Swedish labels currently showcasing their autumn and winter collections.
With the industry enjoying record profits last year, interest in Swedish fashion around the world has never been so big.
32 Swedish clothing labels are showing their collection at Swedish Fashion Week which began on Monday and ends on Thursday.
Business is booming for the Swedish fashion industry which exported clothes worth 11 billion kronor (1.76 billion US dollars) last year.
Brands such as Whyred, Acne, Dagmar, Hope, Filippa K , Cheap Monday (picture above) have become household names and there are many more out there.
Anna Eriksson, who represents the Association of Swedish Fashion Brands, which was formed just over a year ago, believes the success story is down to many factors but one key elemnt is that Swedish design is really wearable.
"It's really good quality and it's actually affordable so people can actually go out and buy it. Our main markets are Norway, Denmark , Germany, Holland, and Belgium but we're also expanding in the US and in Asia."
One of the up and coming Swedish brands which showed of its autumn/winter collection on Tuesday is The Local Firm, formed in 2008 by Richard Hutchinson and Axel Nyhage, who told Radio Sweden about their inspiration and plans to expand.
"We always talked about the feeling when you put on the garments. How you feel, if you feel avant garde, if you feel sexy, if you feel attractive. We are trying to target not a certain age group but a certain person with a certain type of mentality. We said we are trying to find our partners and our retail partners in Tokyo, Los Angeles, New York," Alex Nyhage said.
While not quite up there with London, Milan and Paris, the importance and attention directed towards Swedish fashion Week is growing with scores of international fashion journalists attending over the four days providing worldwide exposure for the Swedish fashion labels.
