Who is Totême? The Swedish house of Elin Kling and Karl Lindman

Totême is a Swedish fashion house founded in 2014 by Elin Kling and Karl Lindman, a married couple who started the label in New York and moved it to Stockholm two years later. It makes ready-to-wear, shoes, bags, accessories and jewellery, and it has become the shorthand for a particular kind of pared-back dressing: precise tailoring, honest fabric, a wardrobe built from archetypes rather than trends. Luxury Handbags carries 1,518 Totême pieces, from a $164 rib tank to a $7,440 coat, and this page is the plain-English answer to who the house is, who runs it, where it is made and why it costs what it does.

“TOTEME is a fashion house rooted in Swedish sensibilities, modern aspirations and the notion of style,” the house writes on toteme.com. “With an appreciation for women’s many roles and how pieces are worn in practice, we create emblematic designs with an emphasis on materiality and shape.”

Key facts

• Founded in 2014 in New York by Elin Kling (born 17 February 1983 in Mariestad, Sweden) and Karl Lindman (born 1 December 1981 in Bromma, Stockholm), who married the same year
• Moved to Stockholm in 2016; the atelier is there and the design studio is in London (The Telegraph, February 2025)
• Flagship stores: Stockholm (2019), New York (2022), London (2023) and Los Angeles (2024); the brand lists stores in the United Kingdom, Sweden, the United States, Denmark, France, China, Korea and Japan
• Altor, the Swedish investment fund, took a minority stake in 2021; annual revenue passed 100 million euros by 2022 and the house employed about 150 people by early 2025
• Named Entrepreneurs of the Year by Dagens Industri in 2024 and listed in the BoF 500 the same year; first Paris runway show and New York Fashion Week presentation in 2024
• On Luxury Shoes : 1,518 pieces, $164 to $7,440, median $980; 261 of the current pieces state Italy as the country of manufacture
• The name is pronounced toh-TEM (the accent on the e is a circumflex, and the house writes it TOTEME in capitals)

Who founded Totême

Elin Kling came up through Swedish fashion media. She was the official stylist for the Swedish Idol series, built one of the most followed style blogs of the late 2000s, wrote for Expressen and later launched her own print magazine, Styleby. Karl Lindman is an art director by trade, formerly senior art director at the New York agency Baron and Baron and design director at Interview magazine, and a former model discovered by Bruce Weber. He designed the Totême logo and still runs the brand’s visual identity and its stores; she runs the collections. The two met in New York, married in 2014 and founded the label the same year. That division of labour, one founder on the clothes and one on how they are shown, is the reason the brand looks as coherent in a shop window as it does on a hanger.

What the house makes

The core is ready-to-wear: coats and jackets first, then tailoring, knitwear, dresses, denim and the swim and beach line that arrives every spring. The accessories grew out of the same idea. The bags close with the T-Lock twist clasp instead of a logo, the shoes sit on the house’s set-back heel, and the jewellery comes in two tiers, a fashion line in gold-plated recycled brass and a fine line in recycled 18kt gold made in Arezzo. The house describes its Signatures as the permanent pieces, the tank, the trench, the flip-flop, the scarf jacket and the monogram silk scarf among them, which it tweaks rather than replaces each season; in 2021 it told WWD that about 40 percent of the offer was classics and carry-overs.

“Our longstanding Signatures are unmistakably TOTEME: they have a classic expression and a clear purpose in our wardrobe. Whether it is a tank, trench or flip-flop, we strive to make the best wardrobe archetypes by tweaking and perfecting them over time through improved materials and manufacturing techniques,” the house writes on its sustainability page.

Where Totême is made

Totême designs in Stockholm and London and manufactures with partner factories. The product pages state the country where the house chooses to declare it: the current bags, shoes and fashion jewellery say crafted in Italy, handmade in Italy on the jewellery, the fine jewellery says Arezzo, the Italian goldsmithing town, and much of the ready-to-wear carries no country line at all. Luxury Handbags records what the brand states and nothing more, so a piece listed with origin Sweden on this site is a piece whose page did not name a factory country.

How much Totême costs

On Luxury Handbags the range runs from $164 for a rib tank to $7,440 for outerwear, with a median of $980. Coats sit between $1,159 and $7,440, knitwear between $252 and $2,610, dresses between $520 and $4,536, and the bags between $840 and $3,530. The Telegraph put the brand’s own range at about 300 pounds for a knit to 2,500 pounds for the sheepskin coats. The full breakdown is in the price guide, and the question of whether that makes it luxury has its own answer in Is Totême a luxury brand.

The pieces to know first

1. Stripe edge bikini bottoms black, $202

An earlier-season piece, still in stock, shown in black.

2. Stripe edge strapless bikini top black, $202

An earlier-season piece, still in stock, shown in black.

3. Curved rib tank in Black, $260

Made from 93% organic cotton, 7% elastane, shown in black.

4. Stripe edge strapless swimsuit black, $277

An earlier-season piece, still in stock, shown in black.

5. Stripe edge swimsuit black, $290

An earlier-season piece, still in stock, shown in black.

6. Stripe tie bikini bottoms in Walnut, $300

Made from 43% recycled RCS polyamide, 29% polyamide, 28% elastane, shown in walnut.

7. Stripe tie bikini top in Black, $300

Made from 71% recycled polyamide, 29% elastane, shown in black.

8. Classic cut denim full length off-white, $416

An earlier-season piece, still in stock, shown in off white.

Why Totême became the quiet-luxury reference

Three things, in our reading. First, the founders built the business slowly and profitably before taking money: Lindman told WWD the house had grown 85 percent over three years with 25 percent margins before Altor arrived. Second, the design brief never moved. Kling dresses for the occasions of a working woman’s week rather than for a runway moment, and the collections repeat and refine instead of reinventing. Third, the visual side is as controlled as the product, from the logo to the flagships, which is Lindman’s half of the job. The result is a label that sits comfortably beside The Row and Khaite at a lower price, and that a lot of women describe with the same two words, very Totême.

“For us, being outside that fashion center became really interesting in defining what we do. Also, Sweden has a very modern society, it stands for equality and sustainability, so people connect with our brand on that level, too,” Karl Lindman told WWD in 2021 of the decision to base the house in Stockholm.

“My passion,” Elin Kling told The Telegraph in February 2025, “is to continue the search for modern pieces with an ease and strong impact that lives and feels relevant over seasons.”

Frequently asked questions

How do you pronounce Totême?

Toh-TEM, with the stress on the second syllable. The circumflex on the e is decorative rather than a French pronunciation cue, and the house itself writes the name in capitals as TOTEME.

Is Totême a Swedish brand?

Yes. It was founded in New York in 2014 but the founders are Swedish, the company moved to Stockholm in 2016 and the atelier is there. It is not French, although its first runway show was staged in Paris in 2024.

Who owns Totême?

The founders, Elin Kling and Karl Lindman, with the Swedish investment fund Altor as a minority shareholder since 2021. Johanna Andersson, a former McKinsey executive, was chief executive at the time of that investment.

Where are Totême clothes made?

The brand names the country on the product page when it chooses to: the current bags, shoes and jewellery say Italy, and the fine jewellery says Arezzo. Much of the ready-to-wear carries no country line, and Luxury Handbags lists those pieces with the design origin, Sweden, rather than guessing.

What is Totême known for?

The scarf jacket, the monogram silk scarf, the belted tote and the T-Lock bags, the classic wool coats, the Original and classic-cut denim and the rib tank. More generally, for a monochrome, well-cut wardrobe that women describe as quiet luxury.

Does Totême do menswear?

A small menswear line launched in August 2026. Luxury Handbags carries the womenswear only.

Read next

The Totême history timeline Is Totême a luxury brand? The Totême Signatures Who wears Totême

More Totême guides

Every Totême page by Luxury Shoes ’s fashion editor Gemma Deeks: Is it a luxury brand?, How to style, Brands like Totême, The edit, History timeline, Size guide, Shoe size guide, Price guide, Where to buy, Sale, Review, Real vs fake, Materials and care, Glossary, Who wears it, vs The Row, vs Khaite, Capsule wardrobe, The Signatures, Fall winter 2026, Spring summer 2026, Coats, Scarf jackets and coats, Jackets and blazers, Shearling, Knitwear, Dresses, Trousers, Jeans and denim, Skirts, Tops and shirts, Swim and beachwear, Leather, Bag guide, T-Lock bags, Belted tote, Shoe guide, Boots, Flip flops, Sneakers, Jewellery guide, Sunglasses, Scarves, Black, Camel, beige and brown, White and ivory.

Sources and method

Checked on 18 September 2026 by Gemma Deeks, fashion editor at Luxury Shoes . Product facts, the compositions, care lines, dimensions, heel heights and country of manufacture, are the brand’s own product-page text; counts, prices and price ranges are Luxury Shoes ’s live catalogue on that date and move with stock; the founders’ biography and the house history come from the brand’s own pages and the press articles listed below, each read on the date above; the size scales are the brand’s own. Where a claim could not be checked against one of these it was left out, and where the fitting room is giving its own advice the page says so.

• toteme.com, About: the house’s own description of itself, its founders and the atelier in Stockholm
• toteme.com, Sustainability: the Signatures, the design principles, the Milkywire partnership and the 2024/25 report
• toteme.com, FAQ: shipping countries, duties, payment and returns on the brand’s own store
• toteme.com, Stores: the flagship list by country
• Totême product pages: the description, composition, care, size-guide and country-of-manufacture lines of every style (1,297 pages saved between June and September 2026)
• Elin Kling on Wikipedia
• Karl Lindman on Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q4959117
• WWD, With New Investment, Totême Shoots for the Stars (2021): the Altor minority investment, growth and margin figures and the founders’ quotes
• The Telegraph, Lisa Armstrong, 24 February 2025 (via Yahoo Life): revenue, headcount, the Paris show and Elin Kling’s quotes
• Vogue Scandinavia: Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden’s favourite Nordic brands
• The Business of Fashion, BoF 500: Elin Kling and Karl Lindman
• toteme.com, Garderob: the house’s curation of permanent wardrobe pieces
• Luxury Handbags live catalogue, 18 September 2026: prices, sizes and stock