Just weeks after its launch, Swedish brand Teurn is already in the closets – and on the feeds – of the finicky Scandinavian fashion set.
Teurn was an alluring brand even before it launched.
When Teurn’s Instagram went live on November 5, it featured the brand name in that pleasing bold font – the 'U' and 'N' perfect mirrors of each other – across three image panels. Above, plenty of white space and a tiny thread of text with a promise: launching soon.
“I felt I needed to have a place where I can build my own universe. Somewhere I could be free and do what I want,” says Teurn’s founder, Anna Teurnell. She had already helped H&M launch not one but two brands – & Other Stories and Arket – and served as creative director of Marimekko for three years in between. “My own voice needed a place.”
And so launched the first collection – a tightly edited offering of shearling jackets, gorgeously cut suiting and cashmere sweaters, in black, mostly. “We are drawn to basic colours,” she says, referring to the people of Stockholm. “Why? I’m not really sure. Maybe it’s because of the weather. You’ve noticed it, of course.”
Oh, I’ve noticed. Teurnell and I are Zooming at 16.00 in mid-December and it is ostensibly nighttime. Which brings us neatly to Teurn’s primary proposition: functionality. “The vision is to create products that work for us ladies in many occasions,” she says. “They take you from the morning to the evening, with small alterations.” The suit may be worn with the smart button-down shirt to work, for instance. For evening, swap in the t-shirt and tassel scarf and throw on those delicious glittery silver boots.
With its “basics with a twist” ethos, Teurn fits neatly into the tradition of elevated Swedish minimalism. Still, there’s something singular about Teurnell’s designs. The devil is in the details; the leather patches adorning the alpaca wool sweater, the standup collar on the shearling cocoon coat – the brand’s signature. “I wanted it to be, in a way, basic – classic,” she says. “But then there must be something that you add that is unexpected and interesting.”
For Teurnell, interesting isn’t always “pretty or beautiful.” She points out an image in Teurn’s debut lookbook. The model, hunched in an uncomfortable manner, has her back to the camera. “It’s not what you normally do in a fashion picture,” says Teurnell. “It’s one of those pictures you would take away because she looks a bit odd.” It’s one of her favourite images. She aptly describes this dash of strange as “adding a bit of salt.”
Sustainability isn’t something Teurnell belabours – “I did not want to call it a sustainable brand, because I sometimes find it hard to describe what is sustainable,” she says – but it’s organically baked into each and every item. For one, these pieces are built to last. The shearling coats, if taken care of, could hang in one’s closet for years, eventually finding a second life on a luxury resale platform. Even the simple t-shirts, constructed from organic cotton, are bound to get better with age. As Teurnell puts it, she wants to “create products that last forever.”
In the weeks since its launch, Teurn has already found a hard-to-please audience: Scandinavia’s fashion industry. A couple weeks ago, I ran into the impeccably dressed Swedish model-slash-stylist Ursula Wångander wearing the buttery leather coatdress. Those shearling coats have already found their way onto many-an-influencer’s well-curated feed. Even Efva Attling has fallen for the glittery boots. “I found a little space, a little room, where no one was really there,” says Teurnell. “No one had taken it.” So she did.