Toteme:11 must-have pieces ,the journey from blog to global fashion icon and
Recently Lacking Writing Inspiration and Topics, Starting to Update the Brand Series I Thought About Earlier This Year but Never Had the Courage to Write: Starting with Toteme, Sharing the Detailed Brand Stories of My Favorite Brands
In the past, I’ve written articles like Noble Taste, 6 “Old Money” Top Brands: Lora Piana, Brunello Cucinelli, Kiton… and 14 Essential “Quiet Luxury” Brands for the Middle Class: Toteme, Joseph, Lemaire, The Row, Uma Wang…, which were just simple introductions. This time, I will dive deeper into the brand stories, starting with Toteme and The Row, the hottest brands this year at SKP-Select and Lane Crawford.
01
Totême is a Swedish fashion brand founded by Swedish fashion blogger couple Elin Kling and Karl Lindman in 2014.
Elin Kling is a woman with a story, having a clear and diverse career path. In 2007, she astutely captured the blogging trend, launching her personal blog Style by Kling on the Swedish website Stureplan, where she shared daily outfits and fashion anecdotes. The blog became Sweden’s highest-traffic fashion blog just two days after its launch.
Browsing through Elin’s Instagram to the very bottom, the picture below is from 634 weeks ago, about 12 years ago, showing images she used for her blog.
Seeing her transformation from the innocent and simple left photo to the mature and determined right photo, it makes me reflect on life. The aura is completely different, and it’s hard to tell it’s the same person.
From then on, she established a modern dressing tone of simplicity, comfort, and freedom. Later, she also worked as a fashion journalist and stylist and founded her magazine, STYLEBY, in 2011. In 2014, Elin married Karl Lindman, who was the creative director of an agency and the design director of Interview magazine, and they founded the Totême brand in New York, later setting up headquarters in Stockholm and opening stores.
Fashion bloggers like Garance Dore, Chiara Ferragni, and others who seized the blogging boom now either own their brands or have published several fashion books and have followers who have been loyal for over a decade, now all top-tier in the fashion world. Even if they started as the daughter of a cook in a remote French village, these bloggers who began writing around 2008 now have millions of followers on Instagram.
American-Korean fashion blogger Aimee Song launched “Song of Style,” American fashion blogger Julie Sarinana created “Sincerely Jules,” American fashion blogger Leandra Medine founded “Repeller,” French fashion blogger Jeanne Damas established her brand “Rouje”…
Let me add that those who started on YouTube around 2010 or even in 2018, whether in fashion or personal content, have now become YouTube millionaires, significantly elevating their life stages.
Karl Lindman’s fashion career is equally impressive. Initially a model, he transitioned behind the scenes, serving as the art director of Interview Magazine and the creative advertising agency Baron & Baron. Kling and Lindman met through mutual friends in New York, fell in love, and decided to create their brand, Toteme, after marriage.
02
In 2014, Elin Kling and Karl Lindman launched Toteme in New York. Two years later, they moved back to Stockholm to run Toteme, opening their first offline store in Stockholm in 2019 and beginning global expansion in 2020, establishing sales points in high-end department stores and boutiques across Europe, North America, and Asia. The brand gradually gained more global recognition and market share.
Initially, Karl Lindman served as CEO overseeing the entire operation, while Elin Kling handled the creative aspect. To better develop the brand, Totême appointed Johanna Andersson, who had worked at the renowned consulting firm McKinsey, as the new CEO in 2020.
According to their February 2021 financial report, the brand’s annual sales reached 350 million SEK (approximately 235 million RMB).
In July 2021, Toteme secured a significant minority investment from the European family investment fund Fund V to support its global expansion plans and digital transformation. This investment will help the brand increase its market impact and accelerate the development of its e-commerce platform.
In November 2021, Toteme opened its first store in China at Qiantan Taikoo Li in Shanghai, which was also its first store in Asia.
In July 2022, Toteme opened its flagship store at 49 Mercer Street in New York.
In September 2022, Toteme unveiled its flagship store at Shanghai Réel Mall. Designed by renowned Swedish architect and long-term partner Halleroed, the store uses stone and glass to outline the interior structure, showcasing Toteme’s unique interpretation of minimalism. The textures, materials, and lighting in the interior design are thoughtfully considered and reassembled, consistent with the brand’s studio and first store in Stockholm. The graphic and material elements within the space represent the brand’s core style.
In 2023, Toteme opened its first European flagship store on Mount Street in London.
03
Since its founding in 2014, Toteme has developed over seven years into one of the hottest minimalist brands today. Its uniqueness lies in simplicity, structural sense, and neutral color schemes.
The brand primarily offers women’s clothing, including sweaters, shirts, jeans, trench coats, T-shirts, and dresses, with many basic monochrome items. Its pieces are highly recognizable, using fresh tones and structured silhouettes inspired by modern women’s lifestyles and practical needs, creating refined and practical basic styles.
The target audience is urban women aged 25–45 who value quality, fit, and wearability in their clothing.
Toteme is very clear about its positioning: minimalistic, modern, practical, and focusing on fabric and silhouette. There are no bright colors or complex designs, focusing on the combination of basic pieces and exquisite details to meet consumers’ needs for versatility and practicality.
TOTEME is a Swedish fashion house founded on the principles of minimalism, long-standing style, meticulous craftsmanship, and methodic repetition. We craft modern classics with purpose, occasion, and longevity in mind — each piece is made to last and be cherished, each collection seen as an opportunity to build on our existing offering and perfect our styles.
The brand is moderately priced, offering high cost-performance ratios with practical and high-quality products. It doesn’t follow overly marketing-driven routes. The founders occasionally feature the brand in their daily outfit posts, attracting positive sentiments with their laid-back attitude.
The founders have mentioned they hope Toteme’s clothes can be “All time ready to wear.”
04
Toteme also avoids the common letter logo form of most brands, choosing to subtly display a graphical logo in inconspicuous places, meeting consumers’ needs for low-key and identity recognition.
Their monogram series features low-key logo embroidery and stripe patterns on basic white shirts, scarves, and pajamas.
Among all scarves, the upper-left corner of the 2023 SS series, the monogram print scarf, has become a must-have for many fashion bloggers because the scarf’s price is lower than clothes and bags, making it Toteme’s best-selling item.
In 2021, this black and white striped sweater went viral on Instagram, becoming Toteme’s first breakout item.
The T-Lock Bag, launched in 2022, quickly became a signature piece for the brand.
In the same year, the embroidered scarf jacket also became popular, a must-have for fashion bloggers on Instagram.
The monogram silk pajamas, introduced in the same year, also became a star item and remain popular today. Available in three colors, except for white which is not listed here.
Other basic items include the sleeveless cotton tee dress, heavily copied in China this year, especially the beige version, which is very suitable for urban ladies with a gentle temperament.
Toteme’s classic cotton shirt, with its precise cut, exudes a quiet luxury style.
The twisted seam denim jeans became popular early on. My first encounter with twisted pants was Lemaire’s banana pants. The classic cut denim on the right is more basic, though not as popular as the twisted seam denim.
Toteme’s trench coat also sells well, though not very suitable for petite women.
Their wool-cashmere blend coats for winter are also highly praised by bloggers for their cost-effectiveness, making them a signature item of the brand, especially the camel color.
In addition to camel and black, there is also a chocolate color.
Last winter, the quilted jacket became very popular, mostly due to Toteme. Many people criticized it as being very “auntie” looking.
Besides these 11 representative, popular items, here are some other pieces I personally like.
I really like this set of a black relaxed sleeveless tee and ivory silk cotton cord trousers. They have the unique minimalist and high-end style typical of quiet luxury brands.
Continuing the monogram silk PJ design this year, the updated version includes a cardigan that is easier to match, though I couldn’t find it on the official website.
I also noticed that some of their coats and shirts have this flared bottom design. It’s fine in summer, but in winter, the clothes can let the cold wind in, which isn’t great for Beijing’s windy winters.
Toteme has many items in black, a fundamental color for quiet luxury.
Their most popular black boots are particularly stylish and elite-looking. Choose your favorite style; their shoes are well-made and have a higher cost-performance ratio compared to their clothes.
These black skirts are similar; just choose the style that suits you. The cuts of these quiet luxury brands are hard to imitate by regular brands. Spending more on good fabric will give you a favorite piece.
Looking at the 2024 lookbook, it’s mostly black again.
I picked a few sets I like. Since the 2024 pieces aren’t available yet, the iconic scarf jacket has been updated this year, adding a slightly transparent, fine-wool long sleeve.
The second row has two well-cut white shirts.
A new styling tip: tie a cardigan around your waist or use a distinctive scarf with a ring.
06
Although Toteme emphasizes sustainability on its website, referencing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and collaborating with industry-leading organizations to develop their Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) framework and sustainability pillars: Design, Earth, and Community.
In reality, the environmental organization Good on You rates Toteme’s environmental efforts as “not good enough” and only a “start.”
For example, they use organic cotton, which has less environmental impact but lack evidence that no harmful chemicals are used in the production process; some production stages follow the Fair Wear Foundation, but only partially, and there’s no proof that workers are paid at least the living wage; they have issued announcements to reduce animal suffering, but without specific policies for animal welfare, and might use some toxic animal fibers/silk.
Epilogue
A few days ago, I wrote about Y2K Millennium Hottie, Abbie Girl, McBling | Outfit Analysis and Summer Miu Miu Style, Ballet Core Outfit Analysis. Looking back at quiet luxury, I feel that current fashion trends are divided into two levels: one end is young people aged 20–29, including Xiaohongshu bloggers, Instagram influencers, and K-pop group fans, who lean towards Miu Miu style, ballet core, Y2K, and hottie style.
The other side is mature women aged 30+ who have achieved career success, with higher economic capability and mental maturity, having a more peaceful and calm attitude towards life. They pursue high-quality fabrics, simple cuts, and neutral colors in quiet luxury and even old money style.
In my mind, Toteme is positioned as a high-cost-performance brand, especially the shoes. For clothes, only buy 100% silk or cashmere; other styles are for learning and appreciating the outfits.
Recently, I’ve been busy moving. Since the distance is only about 100 meters, driving is a reverse trip, so I have to move things one by one with a small cart. Especially the over 100 kilograms of plants I have, which are very heavy, and my new place is on the 5th floor with no elevator. I haven’t been this tired in years.
I also have two themed videos to edit but no time to do so. Well, I’ll endure these two weeks; this new place marks a new beginning, so I’ll seize new opportunities.
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