Old and new in a wonderful mix

I love when you recognize something from the history, take it to our times and the mix goes all new. You get a sense of both history and of future in the same breath.

The first plastic wrap hairstyle is one of Kate Cusack's wigs - a fantastic mix of the strange 1800 century fashion with powdered pompous curls, and today's plastic orgies - both so unnatural. They remind me of how trends change even though we can't see them while we're in the middle of one. It would be weird wearing both the originals and this wig today.

The second is a promo picture for the CuldeSac Crazy Hair Art Workshop and is a fascinating mix of new techniques and an old fashioned almost etno style. It's one potion of russian, one of medival and a big one of future. I guess maybe Catherine the Great would have been proud to wear this overwhelming powerful hairstyle while we today prefer more sublte signs of wealth and power such as manicured nails. These are the times.

Who should not be near this industry?

When I was 13 a talent scout hooked me on the street. He asked me if I wanted to become a model. It was not the first time. I had already by then had uncomfortable suggestions several times of making nude pictures. I was well aware of the dangers with unknown men asking you to try your luck. This guy was from a serious agency though. I knew it well from posters from my mom’s ads office.

For a couple of years I went on castings - always very shy, very hopeful and always a couple of kilos too heavy. I was the very curvy type. Those kilos really got stuck on my mind and I tried to live on carrots. In my teenage unhappiness I was 100% sure of that two kilos less would mean all the happiness in life. Everyone would see me in the magazines, I would be someone, and my luck would be made for the rest of my life. I had no such happy future imaginations in relation to my ongoing dancing career or in any of the school subjects no matter how good grades I had.



There were two things I always hated about the model environment. The first thing was to be handled as a dog, and the other thing was that no one in the business seemed really sharp. They were all nonsense. And you know what? After reading Bon today I will say it out loud. Most of those model girls are far better people and far more intelligent than most other people in the fashion business. The girls are just the way you are when you are young, naïve and yet not educated, but the people they work for should have come further.

Getting more and more bewildered the further I read this Bon article, I will do a lot of quoting here to comment the fashion business.

FERN I don’t think you can define trends anymore. You’ve got access to everything all the time. --- The magazines create a story about some few garments, and then make six images of that, completely out of their context.

KELLY I don’t think you can say that there are trends. I think there are artists. I believe that fashion is art. I believe that music is art.

Fern Mallis, the founder of New York Fashion Week and Kelly Cutrone, founder of PR- and branding company People’s Revolution representing for example Jeremy Scott, should know what trends are, and be able to see them and analyze them as a part of their professions. Are they nuts or are they just trying to be hard to understand?

But then the saviour appears. Lynn Yaeger, the good old fox, gives some hope to the fashion world when assuming that fashion is more a comment on the society than it is art, and that it is a summation of the existing. Thank you Lynn for representing those who know this. You look ingenious, and come through the cleverest. There is a long and important history and future of fashion, and the trends we see around us is a mirror of the society of today. There are of course clothes - no, rather couture - that also is art, but when it becomes fashion it is always an expression of identity and the times. You can define trends and fashion in different ways but you can't deny they exist.

And of course everyone wants to be unique in these times of mass industry and globalization, but to most people there are very clear themes cross over the catwalks each seasons. You soon see repeating patterns of symbols, patterns or colors that connote to one and the same source. It is those themes that then appears in the magazines as short stories that the reader can attach to something she knows of from before, or something she can learn more about, identify herself with, or not. (Img fr refinary21)

On the topic why there are still catwalks and fashion weeks KELLY responses that the ambience is something complete different from watching a video. When something fantastic appears, or when people roll their eyes on something hideous – it’s a fantastic experience.

Let’s say it straight out. It’s an internal game of a small community where it’s about being in or out, as well as fooling everyone else in the world that this is of matter. Otherwise no one would think that the expensive stuff were worth it if there was no hype around it.



And then finally the entire conversation goes mad when GEORODON, club host, dj and catwalk music director, really doesn’t think that Terry Richardson did anything wrong when using his position to sexually abuse girls under age.

If you don’t know how to say no you’re and idiot and should go home.

LYNN It’s hard to say no when you want to be in the business and they catch you when you are very young. It is to blame the victim.

But no - GEORDON persists that you know what you are into if you’re to make a shoot with Terry Richardson.

LYNN still tries to say that they are not old enough to know, but also KELLY feels that a 16 year old girl should understand when the suggestions are not right.

Then again Lynn is the savior of my heart saying

Am I the only one thinking that it should be illegal with models under age? I don’t understand why I need to see someone under 18 on the catwalk.

But no - KELLY doesn’t agree again

I don’t care if they are 14 and look good wearing a make-up.

I just end this upsetting reading by singing with Lynn in chorus

They are still teenagers. I don’t think they should be near this industry.

This talk proves why.

Lynn Yaeger – I love you.

Orange är osvenskt

Det är höst. Allt blir orange. Orange är ett hopplöst ord, går inte att böja. Oranget. Orangea. Fult.

Innan 60talet fanns inte orange i Sverige. Då var det brandgult. Och det är ju brandgul naturen blir just nu. Inte orange. Intensiv men inte saftig.








60talets orange var helt ny. Syntetisk. Gräll. Hållbar och inte urtvättad. Unga tjejer på Stardoll köper helst inte orange kläder eller prylar när de ska göra sig fina. Orange är sällan fint på riktigt. Det är provokativt, skrikigt, signalerande, högljutt, men inte på ett tufft sätt, utan nästan desperat. Den stora massan unga tjejer har inte nått dit i sin identitet ännu. Några har, några vill aldrig i hela sitt liv sticka ut, och andra kommer dit senare i livet.






Man är synlig eller flummig i orange - kreativ. Inte så många vill varken sticka ut för mycket eller verka ofokuserade. Det är mycket osvenskt.

Vi svenskar spanar mot mer naturinspirerad jugend för att känna oss trygga med den gamla hederliga brandgula färgen. Allemansrätt är ett begrepp vi värnar om. Och apelsinerna måste ju fraktas så långt. Vi tänker på miljön och slår ett slag för det brandgula.








Giles fall 2010


Erdem fall 2010


om lila
om rosa
om blått
om grönt och gult

om sverige ur någon annans ögon
om när jag känner mig svensk

Prezi still for early adopters

Now when I've run my presentation at Disruptive Code I can ventilate my thoughts from the hours I've spent with the Prezi tool.

You find and work with this web based tool online on Prezi.com since 1,5 years now. For me who is a really lousy Power Pointer, and who is working on a PC and therefore can't access Keynote, this Prezi tool was a fun option. The presentations look different, more narrative, less bullits, and more fun. Suits me.



You more or less through all the information you've got on one big sheet, more like a mind map, and then place them in the order you want to display them. The effect is as if a camera is screening from one info piece to the next. Makes you kind of sea sick, but is visually different from the power point view which offers an entirely different experience. I'm not completely convinced that it's better, but I had to try it out.

The thing that striked me the most when working with the tool is how poor it is though. There is no functionality, no options. The least you could ask for to not get dizzy yourself is 'align', different fonts or send to the very back/front, or at least 50 templates, or even better - any template shared by any user. It took me a second to learn how to build a presentation, it took me hours to create it.

Then I remembered - I'm still an early adopter, spreading the word, making the hype. The feature is visually fun, it's innovative, surprising, and for free. They can afford to release it with small bugs, and shortages. I can't upload 10 4 kb illustrations without the pres being too big, and yet I will try the tool out for the effect and alternative.

And then they can add and add and add the features that the users ask for, one by one, and live on this for a long time. If they put in all the functionality that Power Point offers, they have a chance to be the best tool for some time... until something new arrives. Then they will have to do some innovations again.

Geoffrey A.Moore 1991 - Crossing the Chasm - from early adopters to slaggers.

In fashion I go for version 1, in tech for version 2

The mind of a young woman in today's world

I just found this amazing Japanese artist - Fuco Ueda. Her surrealistic art touches me as a slimy snail, crawling up from the grass up on my feet. That sounds horrible, but it's really not. It's more the reality of what our world is, what's beautyful, what's nature and what we are afraid of from the future. It's the old traditions and the nature that we can't run from in combination with the most modern girl - her dreams and nightmares. To me she expresses everything that's on a young woman's mind today.

Check out her amazing overfull but never tiring gallery on her site FucoUeda.com



More fantastic inspiring art
Trend with hopes for the future

Sweden from someone else's eyes

Every now and then i see images and reflections in my Facebook feed from my chinese ex colleague Jing. I find it amazing and interesting to see her learning swedish, quoating Edith Södergrans beautful poetry and in some way I feel that I get to see Sweden through her eyes a little. I here stole one of her images to share with you her aspect of Sweden.



I feel swedish when I...


---


Jag såg ett träd som var större än alla andra
och hängde fullt av oåtkomliga kottar;
jag såg en stor kyrka med öppna dörrar
och alla som kommo ut voro bleka och starka
och färdiga att dö;
jag såg en kvinna som leende och sminkad
kastade tärning om sin lycka
och såg att hon förlorade.

En krets var dragen kring dessa ting
den ingen överträder.

Edith Södergran

Change of company

When leaving Stardoll I realized I almost hadn't seen any people for the passed 5 years. Now that wasn't all true. I met the millions of girls every day. I focused 100% and more on seeing them, looking for them, finding them, understanding them, talking to them, giving response to their ideas and needs, making them happy. They were great company, far more interesting than many others. Now I need to see new people. Img from inside the travel lab

The least you should get is a hi

I was sauntering through Stockholm City yesterday - from Åhléns, to Gina Tricot, further on to Stadium, NK, Mathilde and ended up at FilippaK.

Most of these stores present great supplies. Especially Mathilde has completed the garment concept with super matching furniture, candelabras and more. They really offer the full and true unique Mathilde style.

This complete concept thing is relatively new to Swedes, and it feels fun and continental to find these stores a little everywhere. But when it comes to sales Swedes are still generally LOUSY!

I'm thinking about how I between 17 and 25 was employed at Escada, Crisca, Laurel, Laura Ashley and Plagg, and there was never any kind of sales training, or even instructions of the concept!

If I was the owner of a fashionable shop I would really want all my staff to know exactly what I thought my store should offer, what I exptected from them - to give them a chance to improve and learn the art of selling and to optimize my sale. I would talk to them about who our customers were, listen to their experiences from selling - from before and from our customers, and together find the most optimal way to treat them the best, to give them the best shopping experience.

In Sweden you just hire someone, teach them the cash register and put them in the store - silent, evasible, bored... The least you should get is a 'hi'.


Hello! Anyone there? I've got money, I love your stuff - don't you love me???

Looking for the perfect shopping experience

A friend told me how she very unexpectedly got the question ’Why aren’t web shops profitable?’. I started to think about what I would have been answering to that question.

My first thought is that I can’t say anything about it as I don’t know the stats to analyze. If I expect the range to be attractive and have a market I still need the information on

- how much traffic these bespoken web shops have
- from where the traffic come
- how much of that traffic converts
- on what visit they do convert
- how these who not convert behave on the site
- the average purchase
- the exact curve of purchases
- how many purchases are made in average per person
- how often a visitor returns to the site
- how often a converted visitor returns to the site
- most and least purchased items
- what are the most and least profitable items
- how is the sales affected by specific seasons, events etc?

When having thought this, I continued – do the online shopping sites know the customer's shopping experience by heart and do they have clear and specific sales goals?

I’d say that RAISE THE SALES might not be a goal clear enough for the team to reach. You have to know your customers and work on each little step they take, each experience they have. Are there set goals on each of the parameters above? Do they work consciously on each and every one of them? Probably no.

How big is the target group shopping online at all compared to how many have found the specific site? Is the selected market big enough? Probably no.

Is the site competitive to other alternatives? Is there a WHY the customers would buy from the online site instead of somewhere else – is the WHY good enough? Probably no.

For example - Is the natural losses from the real life experience compensated in the online shopping process? Probably no.

My experience is also that the almost impossible can be possible if you are challenged and focused. There are some pits to fall into though… You have to be smart and know the customers all the way!


A true shopping experience to attract new buyers, who then order more online... even thought the nearest supermarket is full of coffee.


Starplaza is an attempt to offer a full shopping experience with the best from real life and online possibilities.

Also check out the new upcoming online shopping style from Net-a-Porter

Cradle to Cradle is reality

Cradle to Cradle is already reality - Anders Wilhelmson is interviewed by SvD about the self cleaning one time toilet Peepoo (horrible name!!!) - a biodegradable bag targeted to overpopulated slum areas in i.e India and Nairobi. Women in these areas have no where to perform their needs in the day hours, they thereby quit school and have problems with kidneys and infections.

The bottom of the bag contains urea – a substance that degrade dangerous materials in the soil to be cleaned by a month and usable as effective dung.

Don't reduce - return

Don't reduce - return

Reading about Michael Braungart in Camino, about Cradle to Cradle - his book and philosophy.

It's not about redusing your footprints, minimizing pollution, but about only doing good. Sustainable is not an effective term. Nothing should sustain, but return to the nature.

This is not an ethical question, but a way of product development and production. Sounds sound.

Man månar om sig själv

När fritidspedagogen ursäktande så vänligt önskar att 9-åringarna inte ska ha på mobiltelefonen varken under skoltimmarna eller på eftermiddagen blir responsen från föräldrarna mycket motig. De vill kunna ringa när de vill. 'Det blir så jobbigt', menar pedagogen, 'när det ringer i väskorna i kapprummet hela eftermiddagen och alla barnen springer fram och tillbaka och kollar sina väskor. Det blir svårt att föra någon sammanhängande aktivitet tillsammans då'.

Det kan man väl fatta tänker jag. Varför måste föräldrarna kunna ringa sina barn när som helst, undrar jag? Vad är det som är så viktigt att man inte kan ringa till fritids eller skola istället? Ens egen tid tror jag. Ens eget arbete. En själv.

Jag eller gruppen?

Jag är Caminos Friends of the house

I morse fick jag mig en rejäl dos inspiration när jag valde att läsa nya Camino istället för morgontidningen. Det var insekter som föda i överbefolkningens tid, viktiga plankton som håller på att försvinna, Mike Tysons hastiga viktminskning, medvetna appar, restaurangtips i Paris och om trenden av argentinska designers som återanvänder material till coola möbler.

Mest inspirerande var Catti Lang Ungenge, chefsdesigner på Boomerang som själv inte uppskattade att slänga hela fina kläder. Hon beskriver den process som slutade i Boomerang-effekten – deras kunder får 10% rabatt på nästa plagg när de lämnar in ett gammalt till vintage försäljning, med bl a den tankevärda motivationen

”Det är väldigt svårkommunicerat till en 22-åring att det är någon annan som betalar priset för din helgtopp.”

Artikelförfattaren Ingemar Gustafsson skriver

”Det finns en kluvenhet, nästan en rädsla bland många företag som gör bra saker, att berätta om det, därför att det öppnar upp för att bli granskad och kritiserad på andra områden, där de inte gör tillräckligt.”

Det här känns som nyckeln till varför jag gillar Camino så mycket. De lyfter fram det vi kan göra, var och en av oss, i våra personliga liv. Ingen jämförs med någon annan. Ingen blir påhoppad för vad de inte gör. De erkänner att det är svårt att få hela jordens befolkning att ändra beteende i en handvändning, och låter istället den enskilda människan få inspirera andra. Jag tror på att det är lättare att påverka genom att visa på positiva exempel än genom att utpeka och hänga ut.

Det här är därför man går till jobbet. Att bara sitta och rita fler kläder är inte intressant längre. Vi är i en tid nu där vi går från transaktion till relation --- I framtiden är det inte bara konsumenter det handlar om, utan ’friends of the house’

, säger Ungenge.

Det är därför det är mycket roligare att läsa t ex Camino än morgontidningen idag. Jag känner en relation till Camino, deras sätt att tipsa mig i den verklighet jag lever i. De känner mig, förstår mig, hör mig och mina problem, och det jag läser leder mig vidare till viktiga handlingar, istället för att bara fylla mig med ytterligare information om elände och problem.

Puss från mig till er som kämpar med att göra en bra tidning för en friskare jord!

Let this fall be magic

I'm going to Barcelona to get some last summer days this weekend, and then I'm looking forward to return to this kind of fall, by Anneli Olander.

Please check out Anneli Olander's work here

Min Twitterfeed bästa tidningen

Nya tidningen YourLife fick rätt dåliga recensioner i releasen för ett par veckor sen(ex Jenny Östergren för expressen). I samband med detta hade jag en konversation på twitter om hur oinspirerande tidningsutbudet är. Man står där i hyllraderna och tittar och letar och hoppas på att hitta någon superjysst läsning. Testar något nytt som ibland är goda försök, men inte håller i längden.

Livsstilsmagasinen framför allt, känns som gjorda av kvinnor utan starka intressen för kvinnor utan starka intressen. Jag tänkte vidare att en månadstidning med artiklar från alla GeekGirls hade varit drömmen. Skriven av megaintresserade kvinnor för megaintresserade kvinnor. Intresserade av - egentligen vad som helst faktiskt.

För övrigt är min Twitterfeed den bästa läsning jag har. Jag har ju satt ihop urvalet själv till en blandning av nyheter och bloggar om teknik, sociala media, spel, digital utbildning, ungdomar, diy, ekorätt, trender och skvaller. Den är lite stressande bara, och jag får ju aldrig någon överblick. Jag måste förlita mig till att de intressanta artiklarna förses med de rätta nyckelorden som jag triggar på, och text är ju alltid svårt att ta till sig jämfört med foton. Det tar rätt mycket tid också.

Men jag kan få min twitterfeed i tidningsformat nu. Och för den som inte orkar lägga tid på att pussla ihop en bra Twitterfeed med de rätta nyhetskällorna, så kan man välja någon person som verkar uppdaterad och kika på den personens personliga tidning. Det är klart att jag så snart som möjligt vill kunna designa min tidning så att den ser ut som jag vill också, men bleka paper.li/malinstroman är mycket mer givande läsning för mig än vad YourLife är.

(Omtalade Flipboard för iPad är snyggare, med samma funktionalitet men fortfarande grafiskt statisk och går inte att göra personlig på det sätt som jag drömmer om. Och iPad finns faktiskt inte att köpa i Sverige än. Inte heller kan andra tjuvkika på andras tidningar på samma sätt.)



Jag stödjer förstås Dojan i hans artikel från idag Tufft för tidningar när Twitter blir din tidning

Stackars flickvänner som inte får ta del av uppdateringarna

Hört på Twitter i dag

@elmberg Iphone 4 har bidragit till ökad andel kvinnliga iphone-användare

@pauspling Intressant! Har kvinnorna väntat på ny modell?

@elmberg nä, de får ärva pojkvännens 3GS när han måste ha nya modellen

Om varför jag inte är en early adopter av teknik