Let's Face It: Scandinavian Fashion Girls Are Just Dreamy

The Scandinavians are preternaturally gifted at getting dressed. Italians might come up trumps in the kitchen (though the Swedes know a thing or two about meatballs), and the English give good game in the crime dramas department (I’ll see The Bridge and raise you Line of Duty), but resistance is futile—when it comes to style, the Scandis are in a league of their own.

From Denmark to Sweden to Norway, there is no shortage of influential new faces (and wardrobes) to join bloggers like Pernille Teisbaek or Elin Kling who you’ve followed from day dot. Take model Caroline Brasch Nielsen, for example. She hails from Copenhagen and was scouted in a pizza bar; three weeks later, she found herself treading the boards in Dries Van Noten’s Paris show and has the kind of perfectly mashed-up but never OTT style that Scandis seem to achieve with zero effort.

Spend two minutes on Caroline’s Instagram feed and you’ll immediately think twice about the Scandi fashion sense being “minimalist” and “pared back.” Instead, you’ll find the geeky (tie-dye bucket hats, scrunchies and thick-soled trainers) expertly combined with the classic (quilted Chanel bags, an impressive collection of Dries coats) and tempered with just a bit of bad taste (plastic flower earrings and ’80s hair barrettes, anyone?). Some of her outfits are like Anne of Green Gables dressed by Carrie Bradshaw—in a good way.

This kind of style might be genetic, sadly, but you can give yourself a helping hand by bookmarking these Scandi labels: Baum und Pferdgarten, Ganni, Rodebjer, By Malene Birger, Designers Remix and Filippa K, and making a note to swing by the Weekday shop when it opens on Regent Street later this summer. While you wait, here are the other Scandis to keep a closely trained eye on.