Interview: Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair on Stockholm Syndrome

Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair By the No. spring/summer ‘10

With Stockholm Fashion Week just days away, it’s hard to ignore the city’s growing global fashion influence. I traveled to the now very cold and dark city to meet some of Sweden’s brightest emerging talents who are poised to push the concept of Scandinavian style even further. My first stop, was Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair, aka the married design duo Astrid Olsson and Lee Cotter. They’re two of those quintessentially Swedish talents who manage to merge conflicting ideas in a way that makes sense. Their six-year-old label is equal parts challenging and complex, accessible and minimal. If Comme des Garçons and Jil Sander had a baby, it would look like this.

You both worked in totally different areas of fashion (Astrid was a tailor and Lee a retail buyer), what prompted you to go into design?

Lee: It started out with our dream of being able to design our own things.

Astrid: Not having to be too commercial and just making what we wanted.

Lee: And then it kind of emerged into a business and we changed and evolved. Now we have the commercial ready-to-wear part and then we have our line, Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair By the No. which is much more experimental.

Astrid: With the By the No. line, we’re not focused on making money at all.

Your brand name has been on the tongues of many of the people our street style photographers shoot in various countries. Are you ever surprised by the reach your brand has?

Astrid: It’s funny because all of a sudden we started getting these big requests from these really big magazines wanting to borrow ten outfits from the fashion show. And I’m like, ‘how do they even know about us?’ Some of the things we do is for a very small group of people. Not everyone will appreciate. Not everyone wears layers and layers. So if there are more people watching what we do, maybe our work will live for that much longer. We try to do timeless pieces.

Lee: We would really suck at doing trendy things. We have more fun trying to make the perfect white shirt, and then deconstructing it, and assembling it again. I think we live in Sweden and we think that no one sees us–

Astrid: We’re in this very small country, very cold, in the north.

Lee: So we think we can do whatever we want because no one will see it anyway. And then you pop up in magazines and articles and it’s fantastic.

Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair spring/summer ‘10

But Sweden has been growing as a fashion force for several years now. Why do you think the city’s moment is happening now as opposed to, say, ten years ago?

Lee: It’s interesting because it’s like planting a seed in soil that you don’t think you could grow anything in. But I think there is a small group of intellectuals who like art, music, design and architecture who have sprung out of it. I think we’re a bit weirder than the other Swedish brands, which tend to be very clean cut.

Astrid: And I think that now, with the Internet, it’s easier for things to go global. Swedish people are very sort of — not too bossy, not taking too much space, not saying, “I’m the greatest designer in the world.” That kind of thing. But now with the Internet I think we’re seeing that it’s possible to sell things all over the world.

What is it about Swedish fashion that sets it apart from that of other cities?

Astrid: I’d say the price levels. If you look at Scandinavian fashion and compare it to the rest of the world, it’s a special segment. Scandinavians don’t spend the kind of money on their wardrobes that people in other countries do. We have a lot of chain stores where you can get your fashion very cheap here.

Lee: In Scandinavia in general, you get a lot of fashion for the money you spend compared to a lot of other countries.

Astrid: It’s partly because the Swedish are very practical. As you’ve probably seen while you’ve been here, the mothers get their kids, do their own shopping and clean their own house.

Lee: This isn’t a dry cleaning culture.

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Interview: Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair on Stockholm Syndrome

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