Swedish Brands Don’t Know Designers From Editors

Can clothes designing and magazine publishing viably share one office—or are the two doomed to cancel each other out, the latter acting as a vitrine for the former?

Ulrika Lundgren doesn’t think so. The Swedish designer launched her label Rika in 2005, today sold at Colette and Opening Ceremony. And last year, she opened a magazine of the same name, available in Paris since Tuesday.

With an approach echoing ACNE and its brand-supplement-and-more ACNE Paper, the magazine organizes the team’s sources of inspiration, ranging from art to music to inspirational girls. “It’s just about what we’re into these days,” says Lundgren, a former stylist who worked for publications such as Vogue and Elle.

Rika’s editorial model (and models) are flexible. The models, like Daisy Lowe, Irina Lazareanu and Liberty Ross, style themselves, and have input on their shoots: “Irina started picking Rika items and pairing them together, and that’s exactly the kind of interaction I’m looking for,” the designer recalls.

But is this all a kind of comment on objectivity in editorial? “No,” the designer laughs, “Of course not. But you know, we don’t do marketing or classical campaigns, so this is a way to convey the Rika Vision.” The latest issue, “What happens in Paris stays in Paris,” gathered an assemblage of French girls extraordinaire, such as Josephine de la Baume and Clémence Poésy. It was launched on Monday night at graffiti entrepreneur André Saraiva’s restaurant, La Fidelité, and in attempt to bridge to Francophone and Anglophone world, it held a concert by Irina Lazareanu and Sean Lennon. The crowd, equally transatlantic, brought together Olympia Le-Tan, Liv Tyler and the entire de la Baume family. Future stylists, we hope.