Living in Sweden
Pioneering multi-disciplinary design, culture and lifestyle event and "live-in exhibition," Milan, 16-22 April, 1998
The first experimental version of the huge international culture and lifestyle mega-events that we staged in various cities with our magazine and event operation Stockholm New in the late 1990:s and early 2000:s — with a next generation comeback in 2019 with Swedish Style Mumbai! In Milan, we, together with our friends and partners, more or less by chance invented a brand new concept that is still alive and well some 28 years later, with great potential for future nation branding for Sweden. In international media, our event has even been called “an early blueprint for the modern concept store.”
Read and see much more about our vintage Stockholm New events on our Stockholm New website! More text and the few remaining pictures below!
Some time in winter 1998, we at Stockholm New were approached by some friends in the interior design business — representatives from the small upstart Swedish design brands Asplund, cbi, David Design and Box Design, who together formed the export collaboration organisation Swecode. For a number of years, the Swecode brands, which represented the renaissance in the Swedish design and furniture industry still in its infancy, had exhibited with considerable success, if on a small scale, at the Salone del Mobile fair in Milan, the world’s leading interior design event, then and still today.
Now they wanted to come up with something new — something more than their usual booth in the fair premises outside Milan. I myself was not involved in the initial discussions. I think it was my wife and partner Christina Britton who first came up with the simple idea of asking some more friends in other disciplines to join in. Said and done! As usual, things proceeded rapidly. We asked our friends at Brasserie Sturehof restaurant (then with ambitions of international expansion), record label Diesel Music and fashion label Ellegal/illegal, who all came along. In addition, we asked our dear friend Tyler Brulé and his colleagues at Wallpaper magazine in London, founded in 1996 and much hyped globally at the time, who also joined.
Together, we rented Giorgio Armani’s old showroom at Via Borgonuovo in the heart of Milan’s fashion district, a space of perhaps some 500 square meters. Swecode cancelled their booth reservation at the fair. Instead we built a showroom here in the center of downtown Milan. We designed it as a “live-in exhibition,” where invited guests were welcomed to hang out, socialize and network. Of course our premises featured a restaurant and a bar where Sturehof served food, wine and, above all, endless amounts of vodka from Absolut, our number one advertiser and sponsor/partner with Stockholm New from day one. You could label the event as a “live,” “threedimensional” version of of our magazine Stockholm, combining the same elements as our editorial content — fashion, art, design, music and gastronomy, with nature as an ever-present “frame.” Some sponsors also joined in — in addition to Absolut also SAS and the Swedish Tourist Council, among a few others.
Our week in Milan started out calmly, with moderate numbers of visitors. For each day, the crowds grew larger as the word spread about the great hangout spot. By the end of the week, our showroom was jammed packed from opening to closing. On Saturday, the day for our closing party, where Titiyo and koop performed live, our party had been written up in Italy’s leading daily La Republica as one of the most attractive events in the entire deign week.
When we returned after dinner to the venue for the closing party we couldn’t believe our eyes. The entire street was blocked with eager party-goers, hundreds and hundreds waiting to get in, many with falsified invitations. The riotous party was referred to even 20 years later as “The Vodka Party.” Our event received tremendous attention and great publicity, becoming much influential. Already the year after, many leading brands had copied our concept with “live-in exhibitions” in the city center.
In 2021, for the 60-year anniversary of Salone del Mobile, a feature was planned about our event and “The Vodka Party” in an anniversary book for the event, as well as a commerative cocktail reception. Unfortunately, it was all scrapped along with the entire Salone del Mobile because of Covid. For us ourselves, Living in Sweden served as a first, improvised pilot version of the events we later executed with various variations in Tokyo, New York, London, Paris and Mumbai. More may well follow …
Living in Sweden was also the launch event for Stockholm New No.6, with our much hyped and publicized double cover of young Swedish model Anna-Karin K. This concept was soon copied worldwide, as double and multiple covers became a cliché for fashion magazines.
AI on Living in Sweden:
Living in Sweden in Milano 1998 was a landmark lifestyle and design exhibition held during the Salone del Mobile. Hosted at Giorgio Armani’s former showroom at Via Borgonuovo, the event popularized Scandinavian modernism globally.
The mega-event served as an early blueprint for the modern concept store. Here are the key details that defined the showcase:
Organizers & Partners: Produced by the cultural magazine Stockholm New (spearheaded by Claes Britton) in collaboration with Wallpaper magazine under Tyler Brûlé.
Featured Brands: Headlined by David design and other Swedish tastemakers like Asplund and CBI.
Cultural Experience: It wasn’t just furniture; the week-long pop-up featured Swedish fashion, music, and food.
Impact: The event generated massive queues, brought Nordic design to the international forefront, and sparked a series of global Swedish Style events in cities like Tokyo and New York.