Swedes Erik Torstensson & Jens Grede have revolutionized the fashion industry by connecting superstars with exclusive clothing brands. They founded the popular denim label Frame, while their agency has executed projects such as the Jeff Koons collaboration with Louis Vuitton. Read more about the two Swedes’ revolutionary move for the fashion industry.
Nevertheless, Erik Torstensson insists there was no grand plan when he and his business partner Jens Grede launched FRAME nearly 10 years ago and on paper the brand does seem like something of a curiosity. It was founded out of LA at a time when the two Swedes were UK-based, with branding so subtle it was practically non-existent and product names inspired by French style icons of the 1970s. And yet, it worked, in fact very quickly.
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It all began with the advertising company Wednesday Agency Group, based on the third floor of The Biscuit Building in Shoredirch, originally built as a factory for Allied Foods’ Lipton brand and called the Tea Building. Today, it is part of Shoreditch’s rebirth as a service-sector hub.
12 separate companies
Today, the pair oversee 12 separate companies and operate in the fields of public relations, art direction, talent brokering and sales and brand management, as well as helming Frame Denim, a denim label stocked in Net-a-Porter, Selfridges and Nordstrom among others.
“We met someone who is a partner in Frame called Nico [Peyrache] who is very good at making jeans. We were spending a lot of time in LA doing shoots and we figured out that jeans had a lot to do with marketing which was what we knew; we were not fashion designers so maybe this could work? And the idea was to make one pair of jeans and see if we could give it away to our friends and do a cool picture,” says Torstensson.
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Connected celebrities with fashion brands
The Swedes’ most revolutionary move for the industry is how they have connected celebrities with fashion brands and clothing chains. Actors such as Natalie Portman have posed in a Dior campaign and Ewan McGregor in a Belstaff advertisement. When pop star Beyoncé and supermodel Gisele Bundchen fronted H&M’s spring and autumn campaigns respectively in 2013/14, Saturday Group’s creative agency, Wednesday Group, carried out everything from concept to execution.
In 2012, they launched Frame Denim with the aim of crafting a perfect pair of blue skinny jeans. The brand soon garnered a long list of international stockists and celebrity endorsements, and has now expanded into menswear. In 2022, it had a turnover passing a billion USD.
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FRAME is a brand that speaks naturally to the conscious consumption movement since its styles are timeless. Best-selling jeans “Le Skinny” and “Le Garcon” have been in the collection, and in customers’ wardrobes, since the beginning.
This would explain why the best efforts of brands and trend forecasters to kill off the skinny jean have been in vain. They’re just too useful and if you make them as well as FRAME does people keep buying them, and will continue to do so for many years to come.
Two Swedes’ Revolutionary Move for the Fashion Industry, written by Tor Kjolberg
Feature image (on top): PRNewsFoto/BBDO Worldwide