About me
My passion for fashion started in my mid-teens and a dream of becoming a fashion designer started to build. But in the Swedish 1970’s “the Law of Jante [note 1]” ruled; “a code of conduct known in Nordic countries, that portrays doing things out of the ordinary, being overtly personally ambitious, or not conforming, as unworthy and inappropriate.” During an exchange student-year in the USA a couple of years later, I was influenced by the American way of openness and possibility. There I dared to phrase my dream out loud and the response I got was “Great! Go for it!” Back in Sweden, I met Morgan. We shared the vision of creating something together. In the late 1980’s we started to build our brand, Charlotte & Morgan. The core product for the brand was the women’s blazer. I wanted to create a feminine blazer in traditional men’s fabrics. At that time the masculine/feminine look didn’t really exist. Over the years the blazer remained the core of the collection but changed into all kinds of shapes and fabrics. Dresses in fluid viscose and jersey programs with tunics, pants, tops and dresses in beautiful crepe jersey or velvet jersey followed as important pieces in the collection. In the 1990's there was a big interest for fresh new Swedish brands and Charlotte & Morgan grew and became one of the top 10 brands in Sweden. By the end of the 1990’s we had been nominated to both Elles’s design award, Ellen, and Damernas Värld’s the Golden Button, we had had big fashion shows every season, appeared in all relevant magazines and our clothes were sold in the most attractive stores - we had realized our vision and dream. As the next step after the 10 years with Charlotte & Morgan I wanted to work at the biggest fashion company in Sweden, H & M. I spent 5,5 years there learning lots about how to run a commercial business, the Boston matrix and the Product life cycle concept. I was the design director for the tailored- and the outerwear-groups in the women’s division, the core of the company, and was part of the building of a new section, Modern Classic. I also learned the benefit of working together in a team, the dynamic of several people’s different views coming together to create the best possible collections. The following years I continued my journey of taking on new challenges, adding to my bank of knowledge and experience; at Brothers as Brand manager for their tailored men’s line Riley and at GANT, starting out as Designer/Product manager for Men’s bottoms, the same role for Women’s Jersey and after that focusing on the design in my roles as designer for Women’s jersey, outerwear and then tailoring. Now I’m starting the next chapter of my life. I’m looking for new challenges where I have the opportunity to use all my collected experience and knowledge from my own small business to the global giant H & M, the Swedish chain store business Brothers and the Global lifestyle brand GANT.