I noticed immediately upon moving to Sweden that Swedes like stripes. See my blog posting from 09/2014.
http://purplejohn.weebly.com/blog/musings-and-observations-sweden1. A year ago it was a cute little thing that I noticed. Today, however, stripes have taken over Sweden. There are babies in stripes, mothers and daughters in matching stripes, old people, young people, purses, shoes, shorts, shirts, hoodies. So. Many. Stripes. I noticed them in Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic to a small degree (now that my stripe antenna is up), but no where is it more prevalent that Sweden. You cannot walk 2 feet without seeing stripes.
So it left me wondering . . . is this just the latest fashion sweeping the world or is this a Swedish thing??
I asked some Swedish friends and a few shop keepers about it. None of them seemed to know why it is such a popular fashion theme here. One women suggested it is because Sweden is a country that has embraced water - the sea, lakes, and rivers. As such, stripes represent the nautical theme of the country. This was just her opinion though. She had no empirical evidence to offer me. I did a little research and found nothing.
To give you an idea of how many stripes there are in Sweden, the following pictures were taken while walking around Stockholm in a 30 minute period. 30 minutes!! I apologize for the quality - I was on the move.
In Sweden you will see royal blue and white combos: