SWEDISH THING FRAME DENIM FOUNDERS ERIK TORSTENSSON AND JENS GREDE SET OUT TO MAKE THE PERFECT PAIR OF BLUE JEANS. THEIR FASHIONABLE FRIENDS TOOK CARE OF THE REST. BY MAURA KUTNER WALTERS

Erik Torstensson and Jens Grede, the 35-year-old founders of trailblazing fashion marketing firm Saturday Group, are proof positive that opposites attract. Should you find yourself in their company on a steamy summer afternoon, Torstensson will be drinking a glass of white wine (anything but Chardonnay), while Grede sips club soda. Torstensson might interrupt his friend to take a phone call, and Grede will scold him for “fucking up his flow.” They hated each other when they first met in 2001, yet their yin and yang relationship has yielded a multimedia fashion empire with offices in London, New York, Paris, , and Los Angeles. “We are completely different, and that’s why it works,” says Torstensson. “I’m the freak, and Jens is the daddy. We have opposite strengths, so we split the work 50-50.” “The boys,” as they’re known in heritage-based, and obsessed with edgy without going overboard, an collaboration, women of shorter the industry, oversee 12 separate manufacturing,” says Grede. “They aesthetic the duo strives for. “You statures are still buying the line and enterprises. In 2008, they launched forget about the woman and are can be chic, but you don’t have to be trimming down the legs. Independent Talent Brands to link consumed with washes and rivets.” so serious. Denim doesn’t have to be Other models—Gisele Bündchen, labels with celebrities (notable Echoes Torstensson: “None of the difficult,” says Torstensson. , Cindy Crawford— collaborations include Natalie women we know wear fluorescent The Frame woman is a have proclaimed their love of Portman for Dior and Alexa Chung jeans.” Instead, they focused on the combination of ladies, from Grede’s Frame Denim, but Torstensson for Madewell). In 2011, bored with basics: the perfect shade of blue, wife to Géraldine Saglio, assistant- and Grede refuse to be seduced staid fashion magazines, they cuts that were ripped just enough cum-stylist to French Vogue’s by their famous fan base. “We started their own. Their biannual so as not to look sloppy, all crafted Emmanuelle Alt. She’s Lara Stone never get high on our own supply,” glossy, Industrie, spotlights fashion through a “filter of chic.” gleefully Instagramming a denim says Grede. “We know we’re only heavyweights like Vogue Italia’s Seeing the bigger picture—how delivery tucked inside a box that two seasons away from oblivion.” Franca Sozzani and photographers jeans fit into a woman’s wardrobe— might as well contain a Which is why the boys are just Mert & Marcus. is the secret to Frame’s cultish bag (“We like to package up,” says as thrilled to see their jeans on In 2012, Torstensson and Grede popularity. The jeans are elevated Torstensson). She’s a barefaced the street as they are on Cara introduced Frame, their editor- and feminine. They make a woman Hanneli Mustaparta doing the twist Delevingne. “My 14-year-old tested, model-approved denim line, feel sexy in the same way a good in a campaign for a forthcoming stepdaughter just told me a girl to fill what they saw as a hole in the boyfriend style does. The brand’s line of T-shirts. She’s Karlie Kloss, in her class was wearing Frame,” marketplace. “Maybe I shouldn’t say “Le Color Rip” skinny jeans have hatching a plan over dinner in recalls Torstensson. “That the this, but I think the denim industry been lauded for their ultra soft wash Paris to make jeans for tall girls. jeans are a part of the real world is way too referential, way too and leg-lengthening tears. They’re A year after the Forever Karlie is the best feeling ever.”

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