It’s 9:45 AM in Stockholm, in Elin’s office. Elin is sitting at her desk with a firm grip on her coffee mug. In the middle of the room, a high stack of papers and journals rustles slightly as Karl knocks once on the door and enters. It’s time for the TOTEME founders to jump on a Zoom call to talk about 49 Mercer Street, home of the brand’s first flagship outside of Sweden. Today’s topics include the irrepressible endurance of the American dream, how designs dreamed up by a 1940s architect feel right at home in contemporary New York, and why modern luxury can only be defined by things immaterial.

Meeting Host: Good morning—I see we’ve all got our coffees ready, so let’s dive right in. I’d like to start by talking about what role New York has played in TOTEME’s origin story. You met here and started the company here, and now of course you’re back—was a return to New York always the ambition?

Karl Lindman: For sure. I think, first of all, it’s really important to point out that Stockholm is the distinct home of our brand. It’s the factory. But to your question, yes, it’s also true that New York has always been an important part of our journey.

Elin Kling: Exactly. I see Stockholm as the core of our DNA, while New York is this perfect flavor that we like to mix in. I think with all of our collections, we are especially inspired by this idea of the New York woman.



MH: How would you describe her? When I envision the TOTEME woman, she’s sophisticated and refined, but she also has this punky edge, this flirtation with maximalism, which is very New York.

EK: I’ll borrow that quote from you, for sure. I also see her as someone who is constantly on the go. It’s about her attitude and energy. She wants to take care of herself, follow her dreams, have a family and a career. You know, New York is not always the easiest city, or the prettiest city, but the crowd has such a strong point of view, they work hard and they make sure to fulfill their dreams. We find that very motivating.

MH: It’s true—you can’t help but feel that the American dream is still an achievable thing in New York, when you’re walking around surrounded by all these skyscrapers towering at heights never reached before.

KL: You know, nowadays people say there is no such thing as the American dream, but I do think that New York is still this place where hardworking individuals from small towns in the US—or even from Sweden—go to build something from scratch. In a way TOTEME is our version of the American dream. There’s a sense you get when you are in New York that you can accomplish things if you really want to. Supporting that is really important to us. You know, we took this space during the pandemic, at a time when people and businesses were moving away from New York. We really took a chance on moving in at this time—but we wanted to show that we believe in this place and want to see it come to life again. Moving into SoHo in particular felt really right, because it’s where we used to work, and close to where we used to live. The neighborhood has so many good qualities that we trust the customer will always be there.

MH: What have you done in terms of interior design to pay tribute to the local context?

EK: If you compare 49 Mercer Street to our Stockholm store, there we were inspired by the idea of the New York townhouse, whereas the SoHo store we see more as a gallery. This take is less homey, but yet still very personal. The space we have is typical of SoHo: big, open, wide, airy, big windows, skylights, tall columns. We wanted to connect with the history of the area as an artistic community. The Donald Judd Foundation is on the corner, and figures like Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Gordon Matta-Clark—they all used to live and work around there.

MH: And how about Scandinavian influences?

KL: We thought about the Swedish designers that we are truly proud of, and how we could incorporate their designs to make the space a bit like a Swedish embassy. We’ve collaborated with Swedish architects Halleroed, who have been a part of every project we’ve done, and brought in pieces from iconic Swedish designers. But I think perhaps what we are most proud of is our collaboration with interiors company Svenskt Tenn, which is arguably Sweden’s biggest design authority. Most of the designs are from the 1940s, by an architect named Josef Frank. His style was the opposite of minimalist, which is what is typically considered Scandinavian today. This is very eccentric, colorful, bold, full of mix-and-match patterns.

EK: You could say it was a bit out of our usual comfort zone. But when it comes to our collections and our stores, it’s always very important for us to be personal and consistent, but never predictable.

KL: Exactly. We felt that it would be a fun exercise to bring in Frank’s ideas of decorating—for example, he had this idea that if you had two sofas next to each other, they should never have the same print or color. With Frank’s help we’ve allowed ourselves to be more playful with the space, and it also connects back to the idea of what SoHo used to be, experimental and open.

MH: Can you identify some unifying details that signify this space as distinctly TOTEME?

EK: Beyond the visuals, hospitality is actually a very important detail for us to get right. With our stores, we want to give a dose of inspiration, but also want it to be very warm, down to earth—not stiff, like you feel in some places. Our service is in providing a very curated offer and a strong point of view. What’s important for our woman is time, for sure. She is not strolling around SoHo—I’m sure she wishes she could, but her reality looks different. We want to give her a great environment to walk into once she takes the time to visit our store, because we know she doesn’t have a lot of it.

MH: That’s a really interesting point, because of course TOTEME was born online, and it’s grown primarily as an ecommerce brand. What do you see as the motivation for shopping in person rather than online only?

KL: We knew from the very beginning that having a physical space would be an important counterpoint to that online world. A store is where you touch and feel the product we’re making, which is, by the way, everything. You can’t fool people. You can make things look great online, and you can use Photoshop and create beautiful campaigns, but if you don’t actually have the product, then that’s eventually going to shine through.

MH: You have spoken often of how you consider a defining quality of modern luxury to be not taking shortcuts.

KL: I think that that’s something that we refer back to a lot, because when you’re a young brand, it’s extremely difficult to be picky, to sustain a business and make it work without compromises, but we’re very proud of the fact that we’ve always pushed back and gone our own way.

MH: Right, and I think that also connects back to what you were saying about hospitality. Exuding an attitude of self-assuredness and confidence—that is what makes people feel looked after.

EK: For me there is no greater luxury than for a brand to have a strong point of view and tell me, actually, no, we do not offer this dress in every color. This is what we think is the best color for this dress; this is the print we have chosen; this is how you should style the scarf. I mean, we obviously love to see our customer wearing TOTEME however they want, but we think having this authentic and honest voice is so important. At the end of the day, that’s the best service we can give to the modern woman.