Sunday, July 25, 2010

Interview: Elsa Billgren (Need help dressing?), the redish vintage queen.

I'm so happy today about sharing this interview to all of you, because Elsa is one of my muses. I love her not only for being the most beautiful redish girl around the net, but also because her love for vintage clothes, specially dresses.

Elsa is a gorgeous woman who works for Beyond Retro, writes for swedish Elle Magazine and has a progam in the swedish tv, where you can see her showing some amazing vintage shops.

She was recently married with a handsome man who makes her always smile, the wolf -as she likes to call him-; and I can assure you that her wedding was one of the most beautiful I've ever seen.

As you can see, I don't have words for saying how amazing I think Elsa is... but...






Thank you so much for accepting doing this interview, Elsa! First of all, could you please tell us who you are and a brief description of you?
A: I'm a 24 year old married and vintageloving girl from Stockholm who can not live without high heeld shoes and strawberries.


Oh, I cannot live without them too...!What do you do? What do you like to dedicate?
A: I love to picnic in the park, mostly everything that you can do outside in the summer time. I love to cook and have friends over so we can play cards and drink wine.

Can you talk a little about your interests?
A: My main intrest is vintage fashion. I work as Press and PR officer for Beyond Retro Sweden and a dedicate all my time to beautiful things. I love to shop old stuff I don't need and then just take pictures of it.


That's a great hobby, haha! Ok, so, tell us a book, an album and a movie without which you could not live.
A: I read Tintin when I travel, maybe it's not a book, but close enough... I listen a lot to JJ's latest album and I think I watched Edward Scjssorhands about a hundered times.


Would you share with us a memory that makes you smile?
A: I will never forget my wedding day. It was a rainy saturday in May and now I will always think about how happy I was that day when the rain falls in May.

Any favorite quote?
A: "A career is wonderful, but you can't curl up with it on a cold night." - Marilyn Monroe

So, talking a little bit about fashion, at what age did your get interested in the fashion world?
A: When I was about thirteen I think. But it wasn't pretty...


That's really difficult to imagine for me! Could you explain us a bit what has been the evolution of your image?
A: I was white trash when I was young. Horrible outfits that showed to much. But then I saw a movie with marilyn and I was hooked.

How would you describe your actual style?
A: Like a young girl trapped in a Disney movie from the sixties mixed with a german woman who bakes cinnamon buns.


What inspire you in choosing your clothes? Do you follow a pattern to match your clothes or just choose randomly?
A: I just buy stuff I think are beautiful. They are often in bright colors and in cotton.

Where do you usually get your clothes? Do you customize or sew any garment to you?
A: I buy almost all my clothes from Beyond Retro. I do put a bit more money on shoes and I just love Sonia Rykiel!


Sonia Rykiel is one of my favourites too, I adore her! Have you got any special obsession (like shoes, bows, skirts...)?
A: Dresses. I only have dresses. Not a single pair of jeans and that's the trouth!


I think that all the people who reads your blog already knew that! Ok, so now, about blogging... When and why did you decide to start writing a blog?
A: Swedish Elle magazine asked me in december 2008. They got in touch with me from my work with vintage fashion and said they needed someone just like me.

What do you want to express with your blog? Do you think it adds anything to the people who read it?
A: It should be an inspiration and an opposite to all the blogs out there who makes you feel worse about yourself. It shoul be beautiful, colorful and honest.


That's so honest, and makes me say "tahnk you" to you again!
As you may know, you're such a great inspiration for people all around the world -as me-; what do you feel when someone says you are his/her inspiration? What would you say to those people?
A: I get surprised and flattered every time! They are the reason I love blogging so much! It gives me strength to proceed and continue wanting to give people positive energy!

What do you think about the actual Bloggers' world? Do you think they've got some influence into the fashion world? In wich way do you think they make the fashion world evolve?
A: I don't read a lot of blogs accually. I just read my friends blogs. It's very easy to be judgemental towards all the young girls who write about fashion and their lifes. Internet is a harsh place. I'm not vety interested in trends and fashion. I like people more.


Have you had some experience with any fashion or beauty brand for being a bloggers, just to promote them? Wich ones? How it was?
A: A lot of companys send you stuff. I don't write about anything I don't just love. It would chabnge my blog into something else.

How did you started to colaborate with Elle Magazine? Do you think that promote bloggers between magazines is a good idea?
A: I worked with Elle before I starded to blog. I borrowed out a lot of clothes for photo shoots. Working wioth Elle has been pure joy!


About your recent entry of the desing of bowties, how was the collaboration with Flugorna? Have you done something like this before? Would you like to do this kind of things more often?
A: They asked me if I wanted to design bowties ages ago, in my early blogging days. I said yes because I didn't get a lot of proposals like that. Now a days a get a lot and I try to be careful with what I do. I do love the bowties though and really enjoy illustrating patterns!

And finally (but not less important), tell us a tip for your readers (a tip for their lifes, for the fashion bloggers' world or whatever you want to say to them.
A: Don't take life to serious. Enjoy yourself and spend time with only people you love. Surround yourself with beautiful things and never let anyone tell you you're not fab. You are. Abfab.


Thank you so much, Elsa!!

You cannot imagine how happy and inspired I was when I made this interview, it was really great for my final project and I learned a lot about this gorgeous woman!

So... did you know about Elsa?

PS: By the way, I'm thinking too seriously about moving into Sweden... so, if there is some swedish readers around here or people who lives there, could you please tell me a little bit about living there and working? I really would love moving into Stockholm, but I don't know if there's a job for a psychologist and coolhunter as me (with poor swedish but excellent english and a little bit of german!)
I would really appreciate any comment about it!!

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