There are many paths to a career in fashion; knowing how to sew is not a prerequisite for success in the field. Though the recent proliferation of celebrity-led brands makes this seem like it’s a new phenomenon, it’s really not. Coco Chanel, an orphan who successively transformed herself from a cabaret singer to a courtesan to a milliner to a designer, once described Cristóbal Balenciaga as being the sole couturier among her colleagues. “He is the only one, who can design, cut, put together, and sew a suit or a gown entirely alone,” she once commented. If needle skills are optional, a strong point of view and a true understanding of women’s needs are essential: Totême, the label founded by Swedes Elin Kling and Karl Lindman, has both.
This golden couple, now married and parents to Liv, have extensive, if nontraditional, fashion backgrounds. Lindman modeled before becoming an art director. In 2007 a friend encouraged Kling to start a blog; within 48 hours of launching, Kling has said, she was the most-followed account in the country. Many opportunities in media, modeling, and design followed. Four years later, Kling debuted her own magazine, Styleby, with publisher Bonniers and launched the first collection H&M ever created with a blogger. She was briefly involved with a made-from-scratch label called Nowhere, and returned to collaborating the next year with a capsule collection for Marciano. The logical next step for Kling was a line of her own.
Totême was launched in 2014 in New York, where Kling and Lindman were living at the time. From the first, they thought of the brand as a sophisticated-but-accessible lifestyle label distinguished by its utility and minimalism, qualities traditionally associated with design coming from Sweden, but also very much in line with Kling’s no-fuss style. “I have always been very strategic when dressing,” she writes from Stockholm. “I love the idea of creating a uniform.”
Travel has been part of Totême’s DNA from the start, as well. Kling and Lindman were living the expatriate life when Hurricane Sandy hit. “While trying to pack (in the dark) for an improvised trip to L.A.,” Kling says she had an important insight: “I had always felt at ease with my city wardrobe, but lacked the same type of go-to pieces in my vacation wardrobe.” So, she created items that bridged that gap for on-the-go women like herself. Fast forward three years and we wondered, what effect has settling in one place (Stockholm) had on the brand? “The years abroad, have given me and Karl an outsider’s point of view and we feel inspired by our heritage and the treasures that are just around the corner,” Kling tells me.
This week the pair will host the brand’s first-ever show presentation in their mid-century-style design studio. “Although our showroom is quite minimal, it is also a warm, feminine, and inviting space,” Lindman explains. “The same words can be used to describe our collections.” We concur, having had a sneak peek of the Spring 2018 collection. For Kling, it was important for Totême, which she describes as “primarily an online-focused brand,” to also have a physical presence. There is, after all, no place like home.
