This is why every fashion business needs to be looking at Toteme
If you’ve been reading Screenshot This, or know me personally, my love for Toteme is clear. And, unlike so many brands out there which are spoken at length, this is a brand I actually buy. I wanted this caveat before I get into this deep-dive about Totême because I am a consumer of the product, but I have also been on the sidelines covering its creative director Elin Kling and the brand itself for what I’ve now realised is over a decade. But as with what I wrote about Khaite, I often ask myself how, in a sea of so many other brands that are also classically minimalist, or started by influencers, does Toteme continue to succeed? I love the Toteme world and likely do buy pieces because they are Toteme and not always because they are a distinctive or innovative design. I get sucked in.
Following this deep-dive, I’ve broken down key takeaways from a branding and business perspective that really makes Toteme, Toteme, for paid subscribers only. (And no, it’s not just me saying that I still wear their silk monogram pyjamas, EVEN THOUGH I DO.) I mean, do you even remember that Elin Kling started out as an influencer? It is long and in-depth, and covers everything from paid digital marketing, to inventory management, raising capital and more.
Thank you to Louise Phillips of Glow Words, a professional freelance copy editor who I engaged to proofread, for working over the long weekend on me with this. This isn’t sponsored or a paid post by the way, but just an appreciation for her services.
This was an incredibly interesting for me personally, and this took, well, longer than I expected, so I apologise for the tardiness of this week’s post. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed researching and writing this. [Pictured below: Toteme boots.]
In 2011, I had suggested to interview Kling as part of a feature about street style luminaries which included Miroslava Duma (who I interviewed over a breakfast of waffles, berries and cream) for the publication I was working for. We met at a restaurant in New York’s Columbus Circle with a handful of her team.
Kling was a big name in the then-relatively nascent blogging industry, first starting out working in fashion media in her native Sweden before launching her blog. She had founded her own print magazine Styleby which still exists today, and also co-founded Fashion Networks International (FNI), which was best known for NowManifest, a platform which housed blogs by Anna Dello Russo, Bryanboy, Rumi Neely’s Fashion Toast, Derek Blasberg and Susie Bubble.
In a coup, FNI ended up being acquired by Condé Nast in 2012. It was a big move by the legacy media company — Condé Nast bought FNI outright in a period when most of Condé Nast investments were minority stakes. It’s assumed that Condé Nast wanted to get in on the advertising potential of individual bloggers which would pose a threat to their own advertising revenue model, and the appeal of a network providing scalability may have been tempting for Condé Nast, who was attempting to gain dominance in online advertising. This probably wasn’t the wisest financial decision for Condé Nast, which ended up closing NowManifest in 2015 — though by then, Kling had sold her stake in the company in December 2013.
The interview was scheduled right before she was due to go to a fashion show. She wore a 3.1 Phillip Lim long-sleeved shift minidress and incredibly high heels with a Nike cap. Even back then her style was consistent — looking at old photos of her (the cons of being a blogger is that there’s so much documentation) you can see while she was so of the era, what she creates and wears now is not so much of a departure. Back then, bloggers/influencers looked great but so much less preened and polished — they were more like ‘normal girls’ who looked naturally great, like someone who you would have seen at uni. Their clothes have creases. Their faces look less touched-up. Their smoky eye is a bit messy. There’s a lot of high flash and not-so-flattering. There’s an air of attainability still there.
From various sources, I’ve been able to do an approximate timeline of the brand’s reported revenue over the past few years; according to this Business of Fashion article, it has been profitable since 2015, a year after it launched.
2018/2019: prior to the pandemic, revenue was reported to be around €10 million (approximately US$11.2 million according to the average 2019 exchange rate).
2019/2020: revenues estimated at US$22 million.
2020/2021: revenues forecasted at US$24 million, with 45% revenue coming from direct online sales.
2021: a press release from Altor in this year announced its minority stake in the group, stating that sales had reached SEK350 million )equivalent to about US$40.8 million using the average 2021 exchange rate).
2022: revenues surpassed €100 million, approximately US$108 million, which is basically a crazy x10 increase since 2018, and more than double that of the preceding year. Yes, the pandemic may have had something to do with it, and went hand-in-hand with the growing trend for more ‘classic pieces’. BUT STILL. This is a crazy increase.
2023: €129 million which is about US$139 million.
A 2022 Vogue Business article listed the top 20 ‘influencer brands’. It included Skims and Kylie Cosmetics; I’d argue that they’re less influencers and more celebrities. It doesn’t have Toteme on the list, because I’m assuming they don’t consider Kling to be an influencer anymore. The list itself has few fashion brands — beauty, apps, food and drinks are far more lucrative. In fact, the only comparable brand is Chiara Ferragni’s (and we all know what’s happening to Chiara now… if you don’t, watch this TikTok explainer) which is estimated to have an annual revenue of US$12.5 million.
A Wall Street Journal article announced the launch of Toteme in 2014, which Elin Kling co-founded with her then-fiancé, now-husband, Karl Lindman. What it showed wasn’t much different to what it does now, there’s a lot of sleek lines, a monochromatic palette and ‘wardrobe classics’.
Great, you’re probably thinking. That’s not anything new. But I’d like to cast your mind back to what else was happening in fashion in 2014.
While I’m not saying that this is what everyone was wearing, I just want to remind you that 10 years ago, ‘classic minimalism’ which abounds today (I refuse to use the term ‘quiet luxury’) was not the dominant aesthetic.
I remember when Toteme launched, there was some interest, but it wasn’t fervent. It was considered a blogger brand still, and there were so many of them out there at the time, as there are still today.
Kling in 2014 was no novice in fashion labels, having started Nowhere with her Fashion Networks International co-founder Christian Remröd and she had also collaborated with H&M and Guess on her own lines. Her former designer at Nowhere, Nhu Duong, ended up being Toteme’s head of design from 2013-2016. Comparing her work for H&M, Guess and Nowhere, it’s within the same aesthetic realm.
How our obsession with Khaite says a lot about what's happening in fashion today
Furthermore, starting a brand is really hard, even if you have the financial means to do so and the recognisable name. Alexa Chung (again, no secret how I feel about her and her style) started her own brand which ended up closing after five years in March 2022, and one could argue that her fame and influence has always far surpassed that of Kling’s. While winding down a fashion label doesn’t mean it’s an immediate failure, one can assume that she wasn’t having the kind of momentum and sales figures as Toteme. From the Standard:
“Documents filed with Companies House in 2020 show that for the tax year starting April 1 2019, Chung’s umbrella firm Alpha Charlie Limited had losses of just under £2.3 million. Back in 2016, before the brand officially launched, Pembroke Ventures, a consumer-focussed venture capital firm, acquired a 24 per cent stake for £4.1million, valuing the business at just over £17 million. In its latest accounts from September 2021 Pembroke VCT had written down their stake to £250k, valuing the total business to circa £1m.”
And Rihanna closed Fenty in 2021. Fenty may have garnered lots of headlines, had investment from LVMH, but did anyone actually remember what the clothes looked like, or, even wear them? As that saying goes, even with all the money in the world…
Founder strategies are one of my favourite kinds of projects to work on.
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