Off in the Swedish Wilderness

An ACL reader named Joakim Simonsson wrote me a while back and included in the email a few shots of his beautiful log cabin. My interest piqued, I wrote back asking to see if he could send more. It turns out the photos came from his 1940s cabin located about five hours northwest of Stockholm, or as he put it “just where the woodlands turn into the mountains.” I’d describe it as heaven on earth. Eventually, Mr. Simonsson put all of the photos together and started a blog — appropriately called Log Cabineer — to share his picturesque adventures. Check out some of the photos below and visit Log Cabineer for more.

Sweden’s Fjällräven | AW09 Collection

Why not get all of these winter coats out of my system now before spring gets here. Briefly touched on earlier, the fall collection from Sweden’s Fjällräven is, as a good friend says, tasty. Fjällräven — which literally translates to arctic fox — was founded in Sweden in 1950. The company has remained loyal to its roots and many of the designs have been the same since their introduction in 1960’s. Another fun fact that I learned from the company’s U.S. distributor is that it is estimated that 98% of all Swedes have owned Fjällräven at one point or another. That’s a higher percentage than American cell phone ownership (82% c.2007), and just plain astonishing. I have to give the Swedish people credit for their clean and classic fashion sensibilities. They rank up there on ACL’s list of countries (which I just made up in my head) that basically do American better than Americans. Some of my favorite items from the AW09 range below. (Many thanks to my good bud Jay for the tip.)