Scandimania: why we fall for Swedish style

Take a trip to Stockholm and you'll immediately understand its appeal. While the streets of London offer a dynamic blend of street style, in Sweden an understated, utilitarian approach has long dominated. It is this effortless stance on elegance that London's style-savvy are now besotted with. As a city, we're obsessed with trying to look as if we haven't tried too hard at fashion - a sport the Swedes are world champions at.

Our infatuation with Swedish style began with minimalist label Acne (Ambition to Create Novel Expression), a creative fashion house founded by Stockholm designer Jonny Johansson. On arriving in London, the brand - known for its elegantly cut white blouses and directional tailoring - immediately won over the British fashion industry.

Acne's pared-down yet visionary approach was its winning formula - and one that Swedish high-street chain COS hoped to cash in on when it opened its first London store. COS, which is owned by Swedish retail giant H&M, has now taken the Swedish aesthetic to the mainstream and, in doing so, paved the way in the capital for a host of other Swedish labels, including H&M-owned businesses Cheap Monday and Monki, which opens its first UK stores this month.

While Monki, hailed as the Swedish American Apparel, will be greeted with delight by London's many fast-fashion enthusiasts, it is the arrival of Cheap Monday that has generated most excitement among London's fashion fraternity. Not least because its creative director, Ann-Sofie Back - a graduate of Central Saint Martins - used to showcase her eponymous collection on the London Fashion Week circuit but also because Cheap Monday is something of an institution with East End dwellers, who have been championing its perfectly fitting skinny jeans - and its trademark skull logo - for years. In fact, so solid is Cheap Monday's relationship with our capital that following its launch on Friday the brand plans to celebrate with a typical East End "knees-up" in a warehouse in Hackney.

"London is Sweden's fourth city so it made sense for us to come here," says Back, who will open the new Cheap Monday store on Carnaby Street this Friday. A designer so unconventional she once played a hostage victim at an event entitled "Crimes Against Fashion", Back credits her many London-based Scandinavian contemporaries for the capital's infatuation with Swedish style.

"It started with young East End Swedes making the tight silhouette part of their look and from there it has spread," she says.

The appeal of Cheap Monday is its ability to offer low cost without compromising on the aesthetic. Its well-cut jeans and directional knitwear offer a honed, affordable version of Swedish style.

This affection for Sweden isn't solely a result of its unique approach to fashion, though, explains Dazed Digital's Gothenburg-born editor David Hellqvist, who is also fashion editor of Swedish style magazine Hemma. "It's about our lifestyle, our way of living. From uncluttered houses to safe cars, streamlined furniture, black and white clothing - the whole clean approach. We Swedes cleverly know what people want. We understand that less is more."