On the corner of Sanlitun Road, a hot spot for shopping, dining and entertainment in eastern Beijing, lays a new, chiselled, Scandi-chic store — its white stone exterior standing out against the surrounding glass and metal. Inside, a 3D screen airs silent films by Swedish auteur Ingmar Bergman.
This is Toteme’s latest flagship, and its first in China. Opening on 27 March, it is a statement of the Stockholm-based brand’s intent in a turbulent market. In 2024, China saw a significant slowdown: the country’s luxury market declined as much as 20 per cent, according to Bain estimates, driven by a slump in consumer confidence. Domestic spending has been challenged, with Chinese luxury consumers preferring to spend abroad. The downturn has had a knock-on effect across the whole industry, contributing to a wider luxury slowdown (alongside a perceived decline in value linked to steep price increases).
Toteme CEO Johanna Sjöberg, who joined in 2019 after spending seven years leading management consultancy McKinsey’s Scandinavian fashion and luxury hub, is up for tackling both problems. “Long term, the idea is to build Toteme as a leader in the new era of luxury,” she says.
China is one of Toteme’s top five markets, along with the US, the UK, Korea and Sweden (the brand declined to share specific percentage breakdowns). “Even if the market has been very challenging for most brands, we’ve had another really good year. We’ve built a trusting relationship with the women in the market,” says Sjöberg. “What we stand for seems to resonate with what’s going on in the market. If you look at the reviews of the Chinese economy and consumer sentiment, they say that Chinese consumers are still making money but they’re putting money in their bank accounts instead of spending it. Toteme is something you invest in and hopefully wear long term, so even in a down market, Chinese women are still investing in what we’re doing.”
Toteme was founded in 2014 by Swedish blogger Elin Kling and her now husband Karl Lindman. Annual sales reached €180 million in 2024 (in 2023, the brand disclosed to Vogue Business that annual sales were over $100 million). The brand already has four shop-in-shops in China (two in Shanghai — the biggest in department store Réel — one in Nanjing luxury mall Deji Plaza and one in Hangzhou), but this will be its first flagship and a milestone in its ongoing Asia expansion. In 2023, the brand opened two stores in Seoul, South Korea. Sjöberg says the next region of focus will be Japan. The brand’s other most prominent flagships are located in Stockholm, London, New York and LA.
Brands including Louis Vuitton, Burberry and Balenciaga have set up shop nearby in the Sanlitun district. Designed in collaboration with Swiss architecture firm Herzog de Meuron, Toteme’s store design plays with the existing structure’s tall sculptural proportions, and features pleated white stone, rippled glass, a staircase of white steel, high-gloss black lacquer wood and a traditional Chinese garden.
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Tied to the opening, Toteme is hosting individual sessions with VICs, to introduce them to the store, and is launching three fresh colourways of its Bevel bag, available exclusively at the Beijing flagship. “We care equally about each store, but flagships have more room to play because of the location and size, so we can put the full brand on show with all the categories,” says Sjöberg. “There’s also room to build relationships with clients to a larger extent because we can host [events].”
Building a sense of connection has been essential to Toteme’s resilience. “The most important thing to our customer is that she can trust the brand. Our customer is smart and values the layers of a brand beyond what you see at first glance,” says Sjöberg. “She can trust the quality of the product and that the style will look good, but also she can trust our supply chain. She expects us to deliver on our sustainability promises and be a good force in the industry. She likes that we don’t sacrifice quality for a lower price.”
A new vision for luxury
Toteme has a diversified and balanced mix across markets and distribution channels: sales are split evenly across the US, Europe and Asia. Sjöberg says this strategy has helped the brand remain resilient during an uncertain time. “We have roughly a third in each market, and that’s been a very supportive hedge to the business because hopefully not all markets are impacted at the same time — and that’s been the case so far. So if China is tougher, the US has been thriving, or if the US is not, then Europe is strong,” she says. “Either way, what we’re bringing to our customers and why Toteme exists remains the same, independent of the macro situation.”
The brand’s retail distribution is also split relatively evenly between direct-to-consumer (DTC) and wholesale, with a slight overweight in DTC. Amid market turbulence, Sjöberg resists the temptation to react hastily. “There was a long time where people were saying DTC is the only way, but I think wholesale plays an important role,” she says. “We have a really strong relationship with our wholesale partners and a mutual agreement of supporting each other. Trust is the most important part of having a well-functioning wholesale network, given that you don’t have full control. When you have strong partners with good adjacencies, it’s beneficial for everyone.”
Sjöberg says she frequently asks herself: “What is luxury today?” A question central to Toteme’s success. “Luxury is so much more than price point. When we speak about the new era of luxury, we talk about service — not just basic customer service, but really helping our customer,” she explains. “I want [our team] to be on a text basis with our customer, for her to feel that we really know her, what’s in her wardrobe already, what she likes, how she likes to live her life. We know she has two kids, that she travelled to this country, that she likes this style, that she’s travelling to London and needs help on what to wear to a meeting, that she needs the product to be sent to her office because she’s working. Our ambition is for every customer to have a personal relationship with the brand.”
Specificity is the secret to keeping this customer, particularly regarding how the products work for her daily life. When new products are developed, Sjöberg says her team is laser-focused on where the customer would wear the piece and how she would feel in it. After the products are rolled out, Toteme evaluates the profitability of each individual product — a lengthy process that most brands shy away from, but which Sjöberg says allows Toteme to be brutally honest about what’s really working.
Toteme’s customers represent a variety of groups, from aspirational shoppers to higher-net-worth clients. The brand has a wide price range, from £80 for a white ribbed tank, £310 for black tailored trousers and £500 for a cashmere crewneck sweater, up to £810 for the viral scarf coat, £2,160 for the teddy shearling clasp jacket and £4,110 for a pony hair coat.
“We have a wide range of customers, which is exactly what we want. Our woman is less defined by how much she makes but more by how she likes to live her life and what’s important to her — where she likes to travel, what art she’s into,” Sjöberg says. “This kind of woman is out there in each specific region or market, they’re present as much in Japan, China and Korea as in Canada, the US or France.”
Quiet luxury has dominated the fashion world over the past two years, and Toteme is a fixture on ‘chic minimalist’ Pinterest boards. Critics have suggested that the quiet luxury aesthetic has become homogenous, and that fashion’s next big idea will focus on individuality. Even if the pendulum swings back to maximalism, Sjöberg isn’t worried: Toteme has been here long before quiet luxury, and will be here long after it, too, she says.
“Back when Toteme was founded, it was all about logo-mania and then it moved onto [quiet luxury] and now something else might come, but the idea is that we don’t follow trends, we’re building wardrobe icons that are still exciting but last and resonate with our customer’s life,” she adds. “There are [plenty of] women out there who want to look good at work or have a busy life, and she needs a good wardrobe independent of the trends that go in or out of the market.”
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Toteme is expanding in Asia. Next stop? South Korea
