Three, two, one…action! Consider horny girl summer launched with the release of a spicy collaboration between Tiger of Sweden and Nuda, an independent magazine founded in Stockholm. Titled Curious Monika, the capsule weaves together two main themes: “Swedish sin” (i.e. the supposed promiscuity of Swedish women as depicted in films from the 50’s through the ’70s), and the country’s progg movement, (short for progressivism) which was aligned with a leftist, ani-commerical agenda. Style-wise, the look was boho mixed with elements of traditional dress; unlike prog music outside of Sweden, the progg movement encompassed many types of genres.
Since joining the 120-year-old brand in 2019, Bryan Conway, who is a Burberry alum, has been exploring different aspects of Sweden’s history via his outsider’s lens. Nuda’s co-founders Frida Vega Salomonsson and Nora Arrhenius Hagdahl are locals who play with heritage in a way Conway cannot. The two friends, whose current office was once used to shoot blue movies, have a sense of humor and embrace provocation, both of which are in evidence in this project.
In the face of growing nationalism, they have taken up the subject of national dress and perverted it in a most desirable, and mostly SFW, way. “We knew that we wanted to make something with Swedish heritage, but in a fun way,” notes Hagdahl. One thing you won’t want to do at work is to cue up 1978’s Fäbodjäntan (Come Blow the Horn!), a Swedish porn flick that takes place in the countryside which is one of the team’s main references.
The sound of the aforementioned enchanted horn is supposed to act as an aphrodisiac. It “is this super, super funny campy porno…a cult classic that really plays to the magic around midsummer,” explains Hagdahl. “It’s these girls walking around in a field and very much in the vibe of 1970s progg movement… People felt good and it was [a time of] sexual liberation.” Expounding on Sweden’s progg movement and green wave, Salomonsson says: “People were forming different collectives, moving up to the countryside, having some kind of free love. But then also there was a big uprising with folk music…and they used these traditional costumes, but they remixed them.” Adds Hagdahl: “I think for us coming into Tiger Sweden and trying to make a collection that resonated with our culture, [the approach was to] do that in a fun and not a national romanticist way. I think Fäbodjäntan really embodies this sexiness, a totally loco, quirky way of looking at old heritage and cherry picking. It’s this very idyllic idea of what the past was about.”
Together with Conway, the duo delighted in blurring lines between real and imagined, new and old, making white cotton pieces inspired by the movie’s negligees. The campaign was photographed at Hagdahl’s red summer house in Stallarholmen, about an hour from Stockholm. They also traveled by train deep into the countryside of Värmland to work with Britt-Marie, a weaver who uses old wooden looms to make fabric for traditional garb. She produced the same material in a pattern the team designed. This is cut into a fetching, trim jacket with hook-and-eye hardware.
For Conway, “The main point was that it was always to remain irreverent; that the capsule wasn’t celebrating anything. It was putting our own view on it. What I love about the ’70s era—[in England] the whole prog rock, folk costume thing—was really [a reaction to] the National Front. Every country had its version that brought a more enlightened cultural forward looking way, so that was why it also felt really comfortable taking [on national] costumes. I’m sure today, Swedish Democrats (right-wing populists) love folk dress; if they saw what we did to it, they would fucking hate it!”
For many, it will be difficult not to fall for a flirty skirt, cut square like tablecloth, that can be worn partly open, long, short, or apron-tied. Jeans have been stained green, as if you’ve been rolling in the hay, or the grass. They look fantastic with the cotton frill of a shoe peeking out of the cuffs; Similarly teasing is a white tap pant extending above and below the waistline and hem of leather shorts. There’s a whip/keychain for those into the pleasure/pain game. For both sides, the experience fell into the latter category. At the beginning, says Salomonsson, “I really didn’t understand how much we could do with it, because a classic collaboration is when someone comes in and does a print on a T-shirt or whatever, but this was not like that at all.” Hagdahl concurs: “It was a very surreal process for us. We’ve always been world builders and building things aesthetically, but we never have a team that could execute ideas in that sense.”
As with the Ben Cobb for Tiger of Sweden project, which is ongoing, Conway’s m.o. is to give his collaborators-turned-friends freedom. What he loves about Hagdahl and Salomonsson is curiosity. “They’re constantly doing stuff, always thinking about the angles,” he says. “They’ve both got this kind of amazing energy; they’re like hustlers. They’re not hustling in the sense of trying to make a buck or whatever, but just always looking to do something cool; that’s the end in itself, which is fantastic.”
Adding some fun to the project for Hagdahl and Salomonsson is their personal connections to Tiger of Sweden. “For me, the brand is very nostalgic,” says Salomonsson. “It was very cool when we were in our teens; all the cool guys with too much hair gel that you really wanted to make out with had the Tiger Sweden belt. For me, that brand has always felt a bit sexy. Not maybe in a fashion vibe, but popping a bubble gum kind of vibe.” “ …and weird cologne that makes you horny because it’s the first guy you ever made out with,” Hagdahl interjects. This time around the woman is in the center of the picture; says Hagdahl: “It’s clothes that we would wear.”
