Lindeberg's World Tour

Johan Lindeberg said fashion collections should be like albums from the best rock bands: The new CD shouldn’t sound anything like the last. That is why he strived to make the clothes for his namesake collection, J.Lindeberg, vastly different from those he was involved with at his previous high-profile gig, working as chief executive officer for Diesel Jeans.

“I always thought they were a rock band and I was the guitarist who left,” Lindeberg said of his 1995 departure from Diesel to create his own company. “I wanted to play my own music.”

Instead of relying on Diesel’s obsessions of rock ’n’ roll and industrial design for inspiration, Lindeberg draws inspiration from sports such as golf and skiing, Lamborghinis, and a glimpse into the future of sartorial men’s and women’s fashions.

His instincts must be on target. The company, based in Stockholm, Sweden, reported wholesale revenues of more than $25 million in 2003, according to Lindeberg. He spent the latter half of 2004 expanding his company’s retail presence around the world.

The designer was in Los Angeles for the Oct. 20 grand opening celebration of his J. Lindeberg store in the Beverly Center, his second North American store. His New York store opened four years ago. He debuted two stores in Stockholm in August and a 2,500-square-foot store in Hong Kong in September.

Lindeberg owns the Stockholm stores but partners with different businesses for his global retail operations. The Los Angeles store is owned by Michael and Sara Dovan, who count the Traffic boutique in Beverly Center and the Traffic and Hugo Boss stores in Sunset Plaza among their holdings. Michael Dovan said he spent $250,000 to build the J.Lindeberg store in Beverly Center.

Lindeberg’s reasons for the retail expansion include building a higher profile for his brand and providing a place to display his entire collection instead of having other retailers feature parts of the line.

The collection will be growing, too. Lindeberg said his footwear, jewelry and bags will be on the market by August 2005, continuing the collection’s sophisticated riff.

“It’s more of an uptown look,” he said of the clothes beyond the Spring 2005 collection. “It’s more modern. It’s not retro. It’s real.” —Andrew Asch