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 three Scandinavians keeping the fashion industry ticking in Paris
A small circle of the fashion industry makes the biggest noise on our feeds – but behind every viral campaign, runway show, and sold-out collection are thousands of unseen hands making it all happen. From production coordinators to studio assistants, these are the people who keep the industry running.
I spoke to three Swedes working in fashion in Paris to get the low down on a 'day in the life' that doesn't show up on your For You page.
Amy Ta, Stylist Assistant
Amy Ta sums up her job as a stylist assistant in two words: supply chain. Photo: Verona Farrell
When it comes to paying their dues, stylist assistants are the junior barristers of the fashion world because in order to be a stylist, you first have to shadow one. Two years of assisting Swedish stylist Hilda Sandström has landed has landed Gothenburg-born Amy Ta in Paris, where she continues to perfect her craft. In her 15-square-meter apartment, she styles looks in her shower and stores shoes in kitchen cupboards, all while navigating her next big move: spreading her wings from assistant to fully-fledged stylist.
Ta sums up her job in two words: supply chain. As an assistant, she’s the one making sure the clothes get where they need to be – whether that's tracking down packages stuck in German warehouses or unpacking and repacking 100 boxes in Poland with a five-hour deadline. Over time, she’s become fluent in logistics. The worst part? Returning piles of clothes to unsuspecting sales assistants, a kind of "humiliation ritual" and rite of passage every stylist assistant quietly dreads.
Learn French, wear a helmet, and start meditating.
Amy Ta on surviving Paris as a stylist assistant
She admits, “sometimes I wish I was doing something more humanitarian,” but reflects that, “at the end of the day, we produce beautiful things.” And despite all its trials and tribulations, Ta confesses, “If I was reincarnated, I think styling would find me again.” Her rules for surviving Paris as a stylist? Learn French, wear a helmet, and start meditating.
Sammy Djohari, Digital Designer at Givenchy
According to Sammy Djohari, Digital Designer at Givenchy, “most of the people working in fashion aren’t actually interested in fashion...”. Photo: Verona Farrell
Sammy Djohari, Digital Designer at Givenchy, tells me that “most of the people working in fashion aren’t actually interested in fashion... that’s something I think not a lot of people know.” And it tracks. Fashion is a business like any other, and while clothing might be the context, it need not always be the purpose.
Giving conventionality a fair shot, he started out as a budding chemist – which, admittedly, was “a complete disaster.” That was followed by a business degree, where he discovered a knack for coding – a skill he later honed at Stockholm’s school of creative practicality, Hyper Island, through a front-end development program. Today, everything we see digitally from Givenchy is carefully crafted and curated by him and his team – think live streams, shopping carts, and the product pages designed to make you drool just a little more. But as his career evolves, he remains relatively unfazed by the context of fashion, instead prioritising his purpose as a designer. He even hints at a upcoming shift to freelance work not confined to this one, albeit fabulous, world.
When I ask him if he feels more Swedish or French, he answers without hesitation: “That’s been a lifelong question... which is kind of why I think I belong in a city like Paris.” But the real test comes when Midsommar, Fête de la Musique, and Men’s Fashion Week fall on the same day. Every year, his heart chooses Paris. One Swedish-ism he won’t let go of, though, is the notion of lagom: “Putting your ego aside is something you learn in Sweden... there’s a lot of ego here,” he says, adding that Fashion Week in the Marais is a yearly reminder.
Frida Tordhag, Fashion Analyst and Trend Forecaster
With foresight as her forte, trend forecaster Frida Tordhag knew when she was young that her future would be in Paris. Photo: Verona Farrell
Since fashion analyst and professional trend forecaster Frida Tordhag is something of a walking fashion library, I couldn’t help but start our conversation with a little test: What is expected to be the ‘it’ colour this fall? What did she think of Balenciaga autumn/winter '23? What impact has Alessandro Michele had on Valentino? Each answer was delivered with the confidence of a girl that studies runway shows for a living.
The fashion fortune teller and trend whisperer uses AI, supported by cultural insights in politics, social media, and economics, to help brands navigate what the consumer is actually wearing in an increasingly complex landscape – with the end goal being less waste and smarter production.
From an early age, foresight was her forte and she grew up confident in the belief that her future lay beyond the borders of Scandinavia. “When I was young, as soon as I went through an issue, I always said, ‘well, one day I’m gonna live in Paris’... It was always the ultimate solution.”