From Design Nations to Fashion Nations? Unpacking Contemporary Scandinavian Fashion Dreams

To many people, the link between Scandinavia and design is still a familiar story of functionalism and the social democratic welfare states of the twentieth century. But until recently the Scandinavian countries—Denmark, Norway, and Sweden—had not sought to connect themselves with fashion design. This, however, has changed since the turn of the millennium. Present-day government institutions, industry organizations, fashion media, and industry form partnerships that not only give the fashion industry a prominent status in deindustrialized economies, but also potentially change the image of the nations. In this article I unfold what I term the fashion dreams of the Scandinavian countries in order to examine what their experiences tell us—on one hand, the role of fashion for the nation, and on the other hand, the contribution of national governments to the polycentrism of the fashion world.