Getting ready in Valentino Haute Couture with Stockholm’s couture collector

It’s rare to see one up close, just laying there, its plumage sprawled out like that. This one is a lovely lavender, plush and delicate. Despite its intimidating beauty, we approach… with caution.

“You can touch it,” calls Fredrik Robertsson from the other room.

It is, of course, the Valentino Haute Couture ostrich feathered hat, constructed by master milliner Philip Traecy. The first iteration glided down Valentino’s spring 18 couture collection. This one was plucked from fall 2021 and has been seen on the very famous head of Lady Gaga. And here one was, sitting casually atop a baby grand piano.

We are standing in the sprawling Kungsholmen penthouse shared by Robertsson and his fiancé, Johan Hellström, the owner of Björn Axén and hairdresser of the Swedish royals. Robertsson, a creative director, host and man about town has invited us to hang out and sip champagne as he gets ready for NK Galan.

Hosted annually by Sweden’s very old, very posh department store Nordiska Kompaniet, the NK Galan honours various achievements in the Swedish fashion industry. This evening, Robertsson will receive the Fashion Icon award, and boy oh boy will he look the part.

He invites us to unzip a garment bag that has been hanging ominously on a door near the front entrance. Out spills an emerald green, floor-length sequinned cape from Valentino’s fall 19 couture collection. The hours – nay, days – of painstaking craftsmanship are immediately evident in the precise placement of the sequins, which start off teeny tiny near the sharply constructed shoulders and get gradually bigger towards the train. It is sublime.

It was love at first sight when Robertsson saw the cape coming down the runway. “It was my first time at Valentino,” he recalls. “I had a pretty shitty seat. This model walked in with this green sequin and I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is just to die for'.” He visited the showroom a few days later and tried it on, but alas, he could not afford it at a time. But a couturier never forgets and recently, when Robertsson was back in the Valentino showroom, he was reminded of the cape he so loved. And so, he bought it.

“It was the first Valentino piece where I ever thought, ‘This is a dream, I would die for this,’” he says.

Unfortunately when the cape first arrived in Stockholm, after the two requisite couture fittings, it didn’t quite fit the way a garment that is made just for you ought to. “I was a bit skinnier when they made it,” he admits – this was during the pandemic, after all. “But I was like, f*** it, send it over, it’s a cape it will be fine.” It was, however, a hair narrow. After a virtual fitting, Robertsson sent the cape back to Valentino to be entirely deconstructed and then reconstructed.

When he slips it over his shoulders, there’s no mistaking that the piece was made just for him. It looks like liquid metal, poured over his body, shimmering with every movement.

The look, of course, could not be complete without glam, and for that he called upon Sweden’s holy beauty trinity.

Starting off with the face, Linda Hallberg — makeup artist, founder of LH Cosmetics, and one of Robertsson’s personal friends — chats as she preps the fashion addict’s skin. “As the hat is probably going to cover most of the eyes, we’re gonna focus on creating a dramatic moment that is going to be seen when the feathers move and ruffle,” says Hallberg as she goes in with a not-so-subtle neon pink pigment. “We chose pink to both contrast and tie in with the purple lilac of the hat and the metallic green of the cape.”

The base was done in layers, creating depth and minimising texture and shine for a red-carpet-worthy matte finish. The final touch to outline the eyes with a thick black liner that dabbled into a grunge aesthetic, counteracting the playfulness of the overall look.

Moving onto hands, the nail queen herself Frida Selkirk was summoned to the penthouse. “What’s the plan?” we asked. “Not sure yet, we’re creating in the moment,” she said. Moments later, she had applied a deep metallic emerald green that matched the cape perfectly. Next, she applied crackling polish – reminiscent of Avril Lavigne’s golden era. The perfect complement to the grungy liner. A rockstar was taking form before us.

Finally, for the hair (even though he would be wearing a hat, the hair must always be done, especially when your fiancé is a famous hairdresser) Hellström opted for an updo sleeker than acrylic itself. Layering heaps of setting spray, he created a helmet-like hair that would serve as the perfect base for the ostrich feather concoction. Robertsson was ready to be drenched in sequins and feathers.

With the help of Hellström, he affixes the feathered hat to his head. This acquisition was, for Robertsson, a no-brainer. “I love everything crazy,” he says. “When you walk, it moves like a jellyfish in the ocean.” When Robertsson strolls around his apartment in the look, the sheer drama cannot be overstated.

There are only a handful of people in the world who collect couture and even fewer men – Robertsson says there are “maybe five”. Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli is especially grateful to have found a male audience, Robertsson says, especially a man like Robertsson – younger than most couture collectors and covered in artful tattoos.

The barriers to entry are high – it is of course, an expensive hobby – but to spend this kind of time and money purchasing extraordinary fashion requires an unapologetic passion and appreciation for the craft. “It’s just the ultimate fashion experience, meeting the women who have been doing this for fifty years,” Roberson says. “It’s, you know, glamorous and exclusive and all that, but for me it’s more about the craft and craftsmanship and this dying art that I love to support. And it’s magical to work with my fashion idols. It’s a dream come true, every time I pinch myself.”

And with that, joined by his prince charming, Robertsson glided out the door, down the elevator to the NK Gala-branded car waiting for him, to head off to the ball.