JON CARAMANICA GOES SHOPPING: Swedish Heritage Edition

In this week's Thursday Styles, the Critical Shopper returns to the local scene as Jon Caramanica shops for a bulk-free winter coat at SoHo's Dunderdon Workshop, a stateside outpost of what appears to be the Swedish counterpart to Woolrich, Pendleton or L.L. Bean. This store, which has been around for a couple of seasons, represents a mash-up of two trends: the recent craze for Swedish sportswear, which seems to be on the wane, or at least in a holding pattern, and the fascination with rugged heritage brands, although, in this case, the foreign heritage credibility of Dunderdon must be taken on faith.

In this case, Dunderdon has not quite calibrated its product for maximum U.S. appeal,

Some clothes had unusual proportions: a handsome navy sweater with phalanxes of red dots ($159) was about four inches longer than I’d expected, and not in a Rick Owens way. Same went for a couple of the work shirts, which could pass for smocks, if left untucked.

Actually, Swedish folks can tend to be on the tall side. Think of "True Blood's" towering vampire Alexander Skarsgard. As a matter of fact, a genuine Swedish friend of The Shophound, recently visiting from Stockholm, marveled to us recently that brands like Dunderdon (which he pronounced "DOON-der-dun") were getting the tony SoHo boutique treatment when, back home, they were considered to be kind of low-end. Who knew they were pulling off an upscale con over here?

Ultimately, Dunderdon's outerwear turn out to be a little too rugged for the citified Mr. Caramanica, who, like many of us, seems to be losing patience for new clothes that look like old ones. One suit is described as "a bit too 'Boardwalk Empire' vaudevillian", which leaves us wondering what will come along to replace these trends, and why's it taking so long?

Critical Shopper: Dunderdon Workshop: Winter’s Reality Check By Jon Caramanica (NYTimes)
Dunderdon Workshop 25 Howard Street at Crosby Street, SoHo