From month to month, Stockholm-based Verona Farrell of Secondhandhuns scours and snapshots the best style throughout our region's streets (and hottest parties) for Vogue Scandinavia – sharing her musings along the way. This time round, she lenses the cute, and oh-so coordinated, couples recently gracing the streets of Stockholm
Ektenskåpslyke is a Swedish word that roughly translates to “marital likeness”, the idea that couples who look alike are somehow more compatible. But what about couples who dress alike?
We’re told that opposites attract, but more often than not, we see couples sporting in-sync aesthetics. If, like me, you are chronically online, you might know this phenomenon as 'The Brad Pitt Effect' – named for the actor’s uncanny ability to morph into whoever he has been dating over the years. And it makes sense. As a couple's lives become intertwined, naturally so too do their tastes. The evidence of time spent together turns up in the things we buy and collect.
That’s what I noticed while covering what couples are wearing in Stockholm – duos so visually in sync they could share a wardrobe (and often do).
Märta and Magnus
When I first moved to Stockholm, I started dating a Swedish guy working in fashion. I was doing the usual background checks, sweeping his social media for any scraps of additional information, when I stumbled upon a goldmine - a candid photo of his former girlfriend. I was distraught to discover her fabulousness. Her tousled hair and laid-back sophistication had all the hallmarks of the kind of cool ex that would send the sane spiralling. When racking my brain for fashionable couples in the city, she popped into my head. Meet Märta Särnblad - my ex’s ex – and her now boyfriend, Magnus Bergqvist.
Like every great Stockholm love story, theirs started at Trädgården. Särnblad usually notices what people are wearing but can’t recall what Magnus was wearing that night, recalling “I just remember we couldn't stop looking at each other, and it was just like a switch”. “I was like, f***,” she laughed, “I think I fell in love in a second”.
And like every great Swedish love story, they moved in together almost immediately. Their new wardrobe was quickly divided into two unequal parts: 90 per cent of it occupied by Märta, a vintage collector and fashion creative, and a remaining modest corner reserved for fashion photographer Magnus. Märta the maximalist and Magnus the minimalist – alliteration’s favourite couple.
Julian and Rami
Julian Hernandez (left) and Rami Hanna (right) had always been just friends, until they weren’t. Hanna tells me the turning point was during a discussion one evening about Hernandez’s disillusionment with dating, when a lightbulb went off, “Something in my brain... a bigger voice just told me, what if it's us?”. His hunch was right, and eight years later, they’ve navigated the bulk of their careers in fashion as a duo – Hernandez as a stylist and podcaster and Hanna as a photographer and creative director.
Sharing a background in fashion blogging, their lives soon started to move in total tandem, both agreeing, “There was a period where we did everything together”. Now they try to keep a healthy distance between work and pleasure, no longer seeing fashion weeks and stressful photoshoots as a team sport, for the relationship’s sake.
And while these days they keep their schedules separate, their wardrobes often overlap. Hanna describes Hernandez as the more experimental one, “I would say he's the early adapter...and I’m the late adapter”, but is happy to be influenced, “I let him try it out...I see what I like and then I'll just steal it because we have the same size of shoes and clothes and everything”. A great system if you ask me.
Lovisa and Björn
Lovisa, the barista and Björn, the beloved regular, met over a double espresso. When she started her own cafe, A La Lo, he became a regular there instead. Every Friday, he made the journey to the other side of town to enjoy his morning coffee there, until eventually he suggested a date. The date went well, and they spent four happy years together.
For practical reasons, staying together wasn’t possible, and last year they decided to transition into friends. The reason I decided to include them is because I am, too, a staunch believer in the possibility of friendship post-relationship. Because if you get lucky enough to meet someone you love, but it doesn’t work out, why not try to repurpose the love? For this pair, there was “no other option,” says Tallving (right) with a beautiful certainty, continuing “we say that we're soulmates, but in a friendly way now”. And Lingren (left) agrees, his company simply too lovely for her to let go, “whatever I want to do, I'm like... Maybe Björn wants to come”.
Today, they share companionship, a dog and a love for vintage workwear.