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Swedes flock to stores to buy summer outfits

After a slow start to the year, shoppers are finally hitting the stores again, according to fresh figures by the Swedish Trade Federation (Svensk Handel).

Published: 10 July 2015 14:42 CEST
Updated: 10 July 2015 16:39 CEST

Swedes flock to stores to buy summer outfits

Clothes and shoe sales went up in June. Photo: Pontus Lundahl/SCANPIX

Clothes sales went up by 6.7 percent in June, compared to the same month last year, new figures by the Swedish Trade Federation (Svensk Handel) revealed on Friday.

Meanwhile, shoe sales leaped by a whopping 9.6 percent.

“It's very pleasing indeed. It's a really good rise and you should at the same time be aware that May was terrible; the industry needed a comeback, or else things would have been looking pretty dark,” Mikael Sandström, head of the Swedish Trade Federation's fashion industry branch, told The Local on Friday.

Despite the Nordic country being known for its trendy shops and brands, boasting companies such as Acne, Cheap Monday and Filippa K, 2015 has so far been a bleak year for Swedish retail.

Since January, total sales have climbed by no more than 0.4 percent.

“On the whole 2015 hasn't been particularly good – at the start of the year the trend was negative and then we managed to turn it around ever so slightly in May,” said Sandström.

“But at some point everyone needs new clothes. The reason June was so good is that there was a pent-up demand for summer clothes and shoes because people had been buying so little earlier in the year,” he added.

A disappointingly cold spring – including the wettest month of May on record – is part of the reason why Swedes did not head to the shops earlier in the year to pick up their summer outfits. But only part, according to Sandström, who says there are no silver bullets.

“Of course if the weather had been nicer in May we would probably have sold more, but that's just one of many variables. If it was as simple as just one reason and not several factors a lot more people would be earning a lot more money,” he said.

French Vogue celebrates 100 years

French Vogue celebrates 100 years. Photo: Thomas Olva/AFP

But as well as celebrating the magazine’s storied history, the exhibit comes at a time of turbulence for the publication.

Just last month, it was confirmed that its editor of 10 years, Emmanuelle Alt, was out and wouldn’t be replaced.

She was not alone.

Looking to cut costs, owner Conde Nast International has axed editors across Europe over the past year, and put international Vogue editions under the direct control of global editorial director, Anna Wintour, in New York.

New York-based Anna Wintour now has overall control of French Vogue. Photo by Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP

Like much of the media industry, Vogue is struggling with tumbling sales and ad revenue in the digital era.

But the latest twist is also part of the endless push and pull between New York and Paris going back to its early days.

“The whole history of French Vogue is one of back-and-forth with Conde Nast in New York – growing more independent for a while, then being reined back in,” said Sylvie Lecallier, curator of the new exhibition, “Vogue Paris 1920-2020″, which opened this weekend after a year’s delay due to the pandemic.

The Paris edition was often the loftier, more bohemian sibling to its more hard-nosed New York version.

But it was also the hotbed in which much of 20th century style and womenhood came to be defined.

“Paris was the place to hunt out talent and content and bring it to New York,” said Lecallier.

The exhibition charts the evolution from art deco drawings of the 1920s through the erotic image-making of photographers like Helmut Newton in the 1960s and 1970s.

Its last peak was under editor Carine Roitfeld in the 2000s, who brought back a provocative Gallic identity by ridding the newsroom of foreign staff and becoming a fashion icon in her own right.

Her successor, Alt, was a quieter presence, though she still oversaw key moments including its first transgender cover star, Brazilian Valentina Sampaio, in 2017.

But internet culture has created “a perfect storm” for Vogue, says media expert Douglas McCabe of Enders Analysis.

“The first 80 years of Vogue’s life, it had the market to itself, it was the bible for fashion,” McCabe told AFP.

“But online today, there are so many other ways to get your information. Influencers, Instagram, YouTube — everyone’s a threat.”

In a world where new fashion trends can blow up around the world in seconds, it has become much harder for a monthly magazine to set the pace.

“It’s not that they can’t survive for another 100 years — but they will be differently sized,” McCabe said.

Vogue has tried to branch out into different areas, including events.

“I used to work for a magazine, and today I work for a brand,” Alt said on the eve of French Vogue’s 1,000th issue in 2019.

But the big money was always in print, and Vogue Paris sales are dropping steadily from 98,345 in 2017 to 81,962 to 2020, according to data site ACPM.

It is perhaps unsurprising that the new top job in Paris, redefined as “head of editorial content”, went to Eugenie Trochu, who was key to building the magazine’s online presence.

She declared herself “thrilled to be part of Vogue’s international transformation”.

For the curator of the exhibition, it is ironic timing.

“We had no idea it would end like this when we started work on the exhibition,” said Lecallier.

“Who knows where it will go from here.”

The exhibition Vogue Paris 1920-2020 is at the Palais Galliera in Paris’ 16th arrondissement. The gallery is open 10am to 6pm Tuesday to Sunday and is closed on Mondays. Tickets for the exhibition are €14 (€12 for concessions and under 18s go free) and must be reserved online in advance.

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