This spring collection is the second to be designed by Tiger of Sweden’s internal team since Bryan Conway left the company. The brand MO seems to be to carry on the template the Burberry alum set, right down to choosing a Swedish creative as the starting point for the season: Cue Carl Nyrén a modernist architect who played with shapes and light; his work informed the palette—neutrals enlivened with blues and butter yellow—and an apple blossom print that referenced the fruit tree at his own home. The color harmonies and use of two-tones, as on a coat with an ivory body and rust lining, cuff, and pocket details were highlights here. Yet overall, the backstory seems more relevant internally than for the customer. The way the collection was photographed underlines the fact that product, rather than narrative, is the focus here.
CMO Laura Frisk said on a call that the team was aiming to build upon Tiger of Sweden’s “heritage of precision tailoring, what we call Swedish tailoring—while embracing this broader idea of modern style.” What is Swedish tailoring? Functional and sharp, said the CMO, who offered as an example a straight-waisted jacket with a soft shoulder. If parsing tailoring in a Swedish style feels a bit slippery, as it does to this editor, another of the 120-year-old company’s legacies is easier to grasp. The founders, Frisk explained, helped “democratize the suit.” Elevating a work-to-weekend offering—for men and women—while maintaining an accessible price point, is the task at hand.
Womenswear is a relatively new category for the brand that has yet to fully land. The most convincing looks were a tailored coat dress that can be worn open with a neat vest and pants, and a butter-yellow pantsuit with a nipped waist and pointed hem and lapels. A fitted black dress with a swish at the hem was a step forward while a draped turquoise slip dress felt like an outlier. One of the brand’s signatures is two buttonholes on the lapel; translating that to two buttons near the neck on a men’s nappa leather jacket showed nice attention to detail, but as a whole the collection felt generic.