North Korean jeans
December 7, 2009
A Swedish department store canceled what was to be the first sale of designer jeans from North Korea over the weekend. The Noko Jeans shop, which the label describes as its "museum", was to be set up at Aplace - a boutique that is a tenant of the trendy PUB department store in central Stockholm.
But PUB pulled Noko's inventory and removed photo displays on Saturday morning, when the first of its 1,100 pairs of jeans were due to go on sale.
"Apparently PUB has censored our exhibition/store by shutting it down and 'confiscating' the jeans because of the 'working conditions in North Korea'," Jakob Ohlsson of Noko Jeans told AFP news agency in an email.
"At first I thought it was a joke but everything has been removed from the store," he added.
Too political
PUB spokesman Rene Stephansen said it is "a political issue that PUB doesn't want to be associated with."
The founder and CEO of Aplace, Kalle Tollmar, said PUB ordered the withdrawal of the stock just half an hour before the store opened for business.
"We got a call from the head of the department store and he explained to me ... that PUB is not the right place, or platform, for this kind of political discussion," he told AFP
A spokesman for Aspace called the decision "a bit cowardly" but said he understood the department store's point of view.
Tollmar said he still hopes to host the store and museum exhibition at an alternate venue, once the inventory and photo exhibits are collected from PUB.
"They have it in a locked room at PUB but we have been promised to get everything back on Monday, it's only for security reasons, they don't want us to sell the jeans," he said.
A story to tell
The Noko Jeans line is the brainchild of three Swedish entrepreneurs - all under the age of 25 - who hoped their label would help break North Korea's isolation through increased trade with the West.
The museum aspect of the store was to tell the story behind the venture, co-founder Jacob Aastroem said, speaking about the personal relationships and trials that Noko Jeans went through in their two visits to North Korea since 2007.
Earlier this year the three Swedes spent 10 days in the Pyongyang-area factory applying a code of conduct designed to impose European Union-style standards on the North Korean manufacturers. The code, which outlines expectations of worker conditions, safety and security - can be viewed on the Noko Jeans website.
The jeans retail for 1,500 Swedish kronor (150 euros, $226) and were scheduled to become available at the Noko Jeans website on Monday. At the time of writing, however, the online store was still inactive.
sjt/AFP/AP
Editor: Sam Edmonds