Around the World: House of Dagmar
Designed by Kristina Tjader, Karin Soderlind and Sofia Malm (Questions answered by Karin)
Where do you live?
Stockholm, Sweden
What sparked the creation of your line?
Sexy knits and dresses in contrasts like leather and silk in one dress combined, or silk velvet dresses with leather combinations, but I think we do great with knitwear.
What are some influences behind your designs?
Our heritage of our late grandmother Dagmar, in combination with our urban contemporary lifestyle in Stockholm.
What are some things that you remember her wearing that you really liked?
She always had the feeling to mix her look so she was very stylish, she looked very arty, mixed prints with each other and she mixed fabrics like silk dresses with heavy knits. And the best thing was that she always made her own clothes in the nicest fabrics and loveliest colors.
What kind of girl do you imagine wearing your collection?
All kinds of fantastic women around the world. Urban women who have high integrity and strong personality and don't want to look like anybody. I truly believe women get a lot of energy and power in our clothes.
What is your favorite part about living in Stockholm?
The open-mindness about anything from art to women's lib.
How would you describe Swedish style?
Oh, difficult one...there are many different styles you know. But the urban look is probably very fashion-forward in a bit of a relaxed way. I guess we are very much aware of what we wear, ha.
Is there anything about your line that denotes a Swedish influence?
Yes, absolutely. There are clean parts of our design that are typically Swedish I think, even if Dagmar always wants to have the mix of unconventional and sophistication.
If a visitor only had a weekend in your city, where would you tell them to go?
They should go to Gamla Stan, Djurgarden and Skeppsholmen– three beautiful places filled with culture, art and history.
How do you divide the responsibilities between the three sisters?
We all have our different experiences: Sofia sales, Karin marketing and production, and Kristina design. We mix everything and help each other, so we overlap, but it is nice to have our own areas that we work with.
In what ways are the three of you most alike?
We are very much alike– social people who like nice things in life, food, nice wines, spending a lot of time together, we like pretty much the same clothes, skiing, sailing and so on. We don't like each other when we discuss skirt lengths! Haha! We always have different opinions. We are actually from three different decades: '60s, '70s and '80s. That's very nice and we do have a lot of friends together. We love partying together, it's a lot of fun. I think we are best on that!
