Sweden Now Has Designs on Your Closet

Swedish design has influenced everything from our dining room sets to the cars we drive. But, despite the successes of home furnishings giant IKEA, car makers Saab and Volvo, and hip discount clothing emporium Hennes & Mauritz, Americans at large seem to know little about the Scandinavian aesthetic.

Swedish culture magazine Stockholm New is hoping to change all that. The annual publication, along with the Swedish Consulate and a number of Swedish companies, is hosting a two-day event in March to bring the fashion and design of Sweden to Southern California.

The magazine, which sells about 600,000 copies a year, features fashion layouts and stories about up-and-coming Swedish designers and chefs, hotels and restaurants. It has already taken its cultural tour to Milan, Tokyo and New York--its biggest American market. Editor Claes Britton, 37, in town this week to look at sites with his wife and co-editor Christina Britton, 40, hopes bringing the exhibition to L.A. will create buzz here for Sweden and for the magazine.

The event will include a film presentation (Jonas Akerlund, who has directed several of Madonna’s music videos, will help produce), photography, food prepared by chefs flown over for the occasion, live music, a design exhibition and a fashion show.

Swedish-designed furniture has been popular for more than 10 years now, but interest in Swedish fashion is just beginning to grow, Britton said. Like the furniture, Swedish apparel is simple, influenced by nature and full of “good spirit,” he said.

The latest issue of Stockholm New, whose theme is a “Subpolar Fashion Special,” is just hitting bookstores now. Or, check out the Web site, https://www.stockholmnew.com, where there’s a hilarious section devoted to the rare instances of bad Swedish design. There, the editors liken Stockholm’s new parking meters to “public lavatories” and lambaste flower pots from one of the city’s downtown parks as “bastardous.” Heinous crimes against design!

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Did Madonna really want to hold her wedding in Britain at the Althorp estate where Princess Diana is buried?

The singer’s New York spokeswoman Liz Rosenberg said Tuesday that the widespread reports are not true, “as is most of what’s been written about this wedding.” At the same time, she wouldn’t confirm that the wedding is even on.

But a Scottish registrar’s office last week listed Madonna and British director Guy Ritchie’s names on a roster of planned local marriages, as required by law. The couple is expected to marry Dec. 22 in Scotland’s 13th century Dornoch Cathedral.

Associated Press reported Friday that Althorp estate spokesman David Fawkes said the singer wrote to Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, the ninth Earl Spencer, a few months ago to ask if she could marry there.

Despite lengthy communications, the parties agreed mutually not to have the wedding there, primarily because Althorp was unable to provide the facilities. “It is not true to say Earl Spencer rejected the star--only that we could not provide the facilities,” he told AP.

Is Madonna refashioning herself into Princess Diana’s celebrity successor?

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‘Tis the season of retail uncertainty, so several upscale Melrose Avenue shops (Agent Provocateur, Betsey Johnson, Daryl K., Emma Gold and others) are slashing prices 15% to 50% for a block party tonight.

Stores will be open from 6 to 11 p.m., and champagne will be served (to help shoppers loosen up their wallets, no doubt).

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Booth Moore is at booth.moore@latimes.com.