Music Credit: Jinesis “Lonley Toss” & Theophilus London

---

Who is the SwedLife?

It’s 11:45. A kid walks past Lucas Olivieri standing outside of his store, SwedLife, before it opens at noon. He slows down and pauses as he notices the unlit, “closed”, interior through the gaping front window, but decides to ask if he can get in early anyway. Lucas happily opens the store. “If you tell them to wait, I guarantee you they won’t come back. They might say they will, but it’s a 99% chance you’ll never see them again.” Wash U alums Lucas and Seth are the owners of SwedLife—the hip-hop blog turned streetwear boutique located on the Delmar loop. One look inside proves that this shop is just as unique as its curly-haired, shaggy-bearded owners. Seth and Lucas laugh at patrons bending down to peer in at the innovative and quirky street apparel, hats, and skateboards. They strive to be the leaders and shapers of St. Louis streetwear culture. “We want to see everybody support each other and acknowledge how talented everybody is in this city. We want to really enhance hip-hop culture here.” They encourage St. Louis artists of all kinds, use Seth’s puppy to attract girls and prove that passion and inspiration can pay off.

// CONNECT

Want to connect with SwedLife? E-mail them at theswedlife@gmail.com or stop by the store on the loop. Check them out at swedlife.com

// INTERVIEW

On their inspiration…
Lucas: We’re both very passionate about sneakers, apparel and fashion. I don’t think either of us were meant to be working corporate jobs, so we started looking for a unique way to form a business out of our personal interests. Like, Seth is really into denim and I’m really into skateboarding. We both just really wanted to do something that we felt we were apart of and in control of. We wanted to change the whole cultural point of view of streetwear.

On the value of presentation and importance of simplicity…
Lucas: Originally we talked about, you know, having a giant tree house or something in the store, or having a bar in the store. But then we kind of figured, like, that’s not really the vibe we’re going for.

Seth: But it got us thinking about building a gallery-style space. We wanted each piece out and kind of on display, featured as if they are the artwork we’re selling. This T-shirt, this hat—there’s so much design work and creative backing behind each piece and we think that kind of gets lost in a pile of t-shirts. When you have a selection out you can really appreciate the detail that went into making each piece.

On their relationship to the underground hip-hop community of St. Louis…
Seth: Our goal in working with artists is generally to try and help them gain support. Like when we do a meet and greet people have the opportunity to meet those artists in person—when they’re not on stage and they’re just hanging out. Both the artists that we’ve done in stores with so far, Stalley and Das Racist, both worked with Mishka, one of our biggest brands. There’s always been a deep tie between hip-hop music and streetwear fashion. We want to cultivate that connection within St. Louis. We’re doing a show Sept. 30 with Rockwell Knuckles, one of our favorite artists from St. Louis. So we’re really excited to be apart of that show and to try and get Rocky some exposure. Umm, I guess you can probably cut that shit out because he doesn’t need the exposure. Dude’s killing the game.

On the bigger picture:
We hope to be the leader of the St. Louis streetwear culture. We just want to see everybody support each other and give each other credit for how talented people in this city are—to really enhance the hip-hop culture in St. Louis. We want to not only take our line and make it a nationally distributed one that started in St. Louis, but also to help local hip-hop, visual, street artists and skateboarders get noticed outside of St. Louis.

Shameless advertising…
Seth: Come see Rockwell Knuckles Sept 30, $7 at Cicero’s. ‘Gonna be a great show. Lucas: Come to the store. Swedlife.com. 6378 Delmar, you know where it’s at. Ya dig. Ya herd. Twitter @SwedLifeSeth @SwedLifeLucas, follow us.

---

Collaborators: Celso White, Briana Pickens, Luke Terrell, Achal Upadhyaya, Dakari Quimby