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A NEW YEAR in DESIGN
From Alice Aycock to Z Zegna,
Creative Talents Signal a Season of Change
TRAVEL
34
Setting
Her
Stage
carin rodebjer’s
stockholm gUIDE
01 Hotel Skeppsholmen is one of
the places where Rodebjer stays
when in town. In the summertime,
she likes eating outside at its restaurant, Långa Raden, which serves
modern Swedish cuisine made
from fresh, local produce.
transatlantic talent
carin rodebjer honed
her style in stockholm.
Gröna Gången 1; 01-46-8-407-2300; hotelskeppsholmen.com
PORTRAIT ERIK WAHLSTROM
02 The designer enjoys brows02
ing at Bukowski’s, an auction
house founded in 1870 and
the oldest fine-art salesroom
in Scandinavia. Among recent items up for bid were a
series of Christo lithographs.
Arsenalsgatan 4; 01-46-8-61408-00; bukowskis.com
01
03 Rodebjer’s spring/summer
2013 collection, which includes
this dress, was inspired by desert landscapes and tones; the
compact, economical works of
American artist Andrea Zittel;
and the surreal. “It’s a result of
moving to New York,” she says.
“I started longing for nature.”
04
rodebjer.com
04 Rodebjer describes the interior
design and furniture shop Svenskt
Tenn as a “cultural institution.” Its
wide array of offerings include
everything from a sofa designed
in the mid-1930s by Austrian-born
architect Josef Frank to local talent
Eva Schildt’s new lacquered steel
Oolong table.
Strandvägen 5; 01-46-8-670-16-00;
svenskttenn.se
05 “The first time I went there, I
started crying,” Rodebjer says of
the rotating menu of medium-sized
dishes at the bistro Matbaren,
located in the Grand Hotel and run
by chef Mathias Dahlgren. “He
does something really special.”
Södra Blasieholmshamnen 6; 01-468-679-35-84; mathiasdahlgren.com
05
PHOTOS: 01, 02, 04, 05, ERIK WAHLSTROM. 03, COURTESY RODEBJER.
Fashion designer Carin Rodebjer’s life has followed a Hollywood-style narrative: country
girl moves to the big city to live her dreams,
struggles along the way, and eventually, with
hard work and a little luck, finds success.
Rodebjer’s tale, however, is a distinctly Swedish
one. Though she moved to Manhattan in 2011,
her professional narrative began in Stockholm,
where she lived after graduating from high
school. In contrast to Gotland, the
small, bucolic island on which she
03
was born and raised, Stockholm
offered “bigger, exciting possibilities,” she says. “And style.”
That style—and her attraction
to effortless, elegant design—led
her to pursue a career in fashion. Recalls Rodebjer: “I thought,
‘This must be real love!’” As an
intern for the label Soot, though,
she learned firsthand how tough
the business could be, and instead
of continuing on, left to study
linguistics at the University of
Stockholm. That didn’t last. “I
longed for fashion again,” she says.
So she dropped out, moved to New
York, and studied the trade at FIT.
In 2001, she launched her eponymous label of subtle, silhouetted,
comfort-focused clothes; seven
years later, the designer opened
her first shop in Stockholm. Now
Rodebjer, 42, has two locations
and one shop-in-shop (another is set to open
in February); a full-time staff of 12; and, with
new investors onboard, she’s planning on
building the brand even further.
Central to Rodebjer’s career plot has been
Stockholm, where she returns about four
times a year. For her, it’s a place that offers
inspiration—and ambition. “Because of the
location, we feel a bit isolated, but we still
have the curiosity to keep looking and keep
moving,” she says of the city. “We really want
to be a part of the world.”—SPENCER BAILEY