The childhood friends were quarantining in Stockholm when they stumbled upon box after box of archive J.Lindeberg. Now, they’re holding a pop up to share the pieces with the world and make a statement about circular fashion.
Blue Lindeberg and Philippa Parnevik have known each other since they were babies, the pair tell me from the Stockholm home they share. They know one another through their fathers – the famed Swedish fashion designer Jonah Lindeberg and Swedish golfer Jesper Parnevik, who became longtime friends and collaborators in the mid-90s when Lindeberg called on the sports star to be his muse.
“My dad picked him out and said ‘I want to dress him’,” says Blue, who works as a model. “What he had in his mind was that people were going to watch golf and then go into a J.Lindeberg store.”
Recalling their fathers’ story, what followed was a meeting at Lindeberg’s “dingy and really weird” apartment in Stockholm, where Blue’s mother Marcella Lindeberg also joined. The Lindeberg’s were dressed in chic suits (“My parents always looked like a power couple,” says Blue), while Parnevik opted for a less trendy Mickey Mouse t-shirt and hat. “My dad had no style at all,” laughs photographer Philippa.
After a whirlwind meeting, Parnevik left bewildered with “no idea what was going on” and not even a sample to show for it. Despite that, the golfer swiftly agreed to leave all of the other big-name clothing deals he had on at the time, shook Lindeberg’s hand and the rest was history. It was the start of an “insane bromance” (as Blue calls it) and a creative collaboration that would go on to revolutionise golfing fashion.
A far cry from the formal and conventional white polos and pastel chinos the courses were used to seeing, Lindeberg designed clothes that were off-beat, ostentatious and fun – think clashing orange and neon pink argyle sweaters, electric blue tailored trousers and chunky purple belts emblazoned with the iconic JL logo.
All of these, Parnevik would model during his major tournaments which made for a headline-stealing stunt. “While [Parnevik] was doing these tournaments he had to change like nine times because my dad wanted it to be a runway show,” explains Blue. “Between holes he would run to the bathroom to get changed!” Philippa adds.
Flash forward 25 years and childhood friends Blue and Philippa remain close, having traveled the world together and lived with one another in New York. During COVID, the girls decided to relocate to Parnevik’s parents' Stockholm summer home to see through lockdown.
“We were in quarantine and bored out of our minds so we would go up to the attic and we found loads of boxes,” recalls Philippa. “We found so many boxes of samples and inside of all the sweaters it says ‘sample, do not sell’,” adds Blue, laughing. “We got really inspired!”
Jesper Parnevik wearing J.Lindeberg. Photo: Getty
Photo: Getty
Despite the decades-old warnings on the clothings' tags, the pair got the go ahead from their fathers’ to sell the archive pieces (of which they say there are over a thousand “one of a kind” pieces) in a pop up they are holding in Stockholm on 11th and 12th December.
As for how the clothes translate for 2021, the girls say they have a timeless appeal. “What is so incredible is that these boxes have basically not been opened for 20 years and we opened them and thought, ‘This is amazing’. This is basically everything I’ve been looking for at vintage stores,” says Philippa.
“Even the sizing… I was really shocked at the tailoring and how modern it actually is,” adds Blue. “It’s almost like The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. It’s everything from a really tailored pinstripe suit to low-waisted bell bottom jeans with the JL logo and neon pink argyle golf sweaters.”
For the girls, not only is the pop up a way of sharing their fathers’ original work with the world, but as a means of making people think more about consumption and the way they shop.
Philippa, who studied Sustainable Fashion at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, puts it: “Our main goal is to influence our generation to think about consuming and not be so fast-paced and so trend-oriented.
“[To] sit back and realise ‘Hey look, these clothes were made 20 years ago, they’re still timeless, let’s be a little more conscious of how we shop’.”
Visit the J.Lindeberg and Parnevik Retelling The Story pop-up on Saturday 11th December (11am - 7pm) and Sunday 12th December (11am - 4pm) at Sankt Paulsgatan 22 in collaboration with xNomad.