What I Would Have Bought in Sweden

Had the exchange rate not been so disastrous, my luggage so stuffed. Pattern porn, if you will.

10 Swedish Designers, Rope oilcloth

Svenskt Tenn, Elephant linen

Polarn O. Pyret, onesie, Landscape Print

Lotta Kuhlhorn pear mugs

Maria Dahlgren, Breakfast in Bed Tray (so many trays!)

Mon Amie porcelain, Rorstrand

Viola Grasten “Festivo” fabric, Ljungbergs Textiltryck

A theme emerges. While the Swedish modern architecture we saw ran to blank surfaces of stone, glass and stucco, every store was bursting with color and pattern — all of the above designed by women. Even the stripes were better: one could have done a photo essay on the different thicks and thins and combinations on the striated hats of every Swedish child. (Those that were visible. All babies were invisible, deeply swaddled in buntings, fleeces, and new-model enormous prams).

The two Swedish homes I entered had the light floors featured daily on From Scandinavia With Love, plus patterned floor cushions and little rugs. I had a whole discussion with one hostess about Royal Copenhagen’s Mega teacups. She had just one or two with the blown-up pattern, the others plain white, deployed on coasters in yet another pattern. Her children were eating quince soup (from a mix) with whipped cream and croutons for snack. It was like another world, the world of the textile fairies.

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By Alexandra Lange

Alexandra Lange is an architecture critic and author, and the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winner for Criticism, awarded for her work as a contributing writer for Bloomberg CityLab. She is currently the architecture critic for Curbed and has written extensively for Design Observer, Architect, New York Magazine, and The New York Times. Lange holds a PhD in 20th-century architecture history from New York University. Her writing often explores the intersection of architecture, urban planning, and design, with a focus on how the built environment shapes everyday life. She is also a recipient of the Steven Heller Prize for Cultural Commentary from AIGA, an honor she shares with Design Observer’s Editor-in-Chief, Ellen McGirt.