Fashion freaks will get a treat at the end of this month, March 27-28, when the fifth annual installment of the Vintage Fair takes place at Hornstull Strand, a funky venue by the water which has reinvented itself several times in recent years. I recommend a visit to the Hornstull Strand webpage, which is illustrated by none other than Joakim Pirinen, the country’s most brilliant cartoon artist. (under the category “press” are a series of Pirinen drawings).
The breakthrough in his career came in 1985 with the publication of “Socker Conny,” about an irresistable anarchistic slob.

This band called “Wooden Shjips” is one of the groups that will be playing this summer at Denmark’s Roskilde Festival. Nice to contemplate summer when its -10 C outside.

The sun isn’t likely to come out in Stockholm today. It rarely does.  But my spirits were brightened by some super-fresh images of the brand new Spring/Summer 2010 collection of Sandra Backlund,  one of Scandinavia’s most original and talented designers. The Queen of Knitwear hasn’t lost her touch.  The photos are by Peter Gehkrke.

When it comes to table settings,  I don’t have a clue.  If I remember to put a knife, fork and spoon beside the plate, I’m satisfied.  Napkins are a bonus.  The Swedish glass company Orrefors Kosta Boda sent me a press release about table settings for Christmas, which might be inspiring or helpful  if I celebrated the holiday.   They let six people of  various degrees of celebrity design table settings.   Hip-hop artist Adam Tensta seemed to do a good job. Margareta van den Bosch and her son Martijn van den Bosch, who recently graduated from art school, also did a table.  The exhibit continues until December 10.

Paris-based multi-media artist and designer is probably most famous for her Cybercouture fashion collections, but she kicks ass as an artist, too.   She has an exhibit opening soon in her native country Norway: The Million Year Memory- digital art, Galleri G, Sandnes, Norway- Sunday 13-17.

High-heels can be liberating for women, adding height, improving posture and suggesting a sexy identity. On the other hand, high-heeled shoes can also be seen as instruments of confinement and torture, historically related to the crippling tradition of foot-binding women which started in China thousands of years ago.

That was one of the ideas dancing in my head when I got a glimpse of this footgear, which won first prize in the “Shoemania” design competition which took place last week in conjunction with the Nordic Shoe and Bag Fair in Stockholm. Contest victors Tove Jansson and Per Emanuelsson also created men’s loafers encased in metal chains, which symbolically express exactly how I feel when forced by some silly social convention to wear stiff, shiny dress shoes which pinch my toes.

Times are tough for Swedish independent fashion designers. One of the most likely survivors is the House of Dagmar, which showed a collection at the New York Fashion week a few years ago. Dagmar, founded by the Swedish sisters Karin Söderlind and Sofia Malm and designer Kristina Tjäder, has sales in 17 countries. Dagmar has been nominated as Designer of the Year by Swedish Elle.
I got a chance to chat with two of the three sisters on the grounds of Stockholm’s Brezelli Park.

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