Manolo Blahnik and Swedish beauties
Walk down any street in Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, or Helsinki and you will be struck by the number of beautiful women you see.
Elin Nordegren, Tiger Woods' embittered Swedish wife after her husband's extra marital sex scandals
There are hardly any unattractive people, neither the men nor the women. Most Scandinavians are somewhere on the scale between attractive and beautiful. And theirs is a natural, fresh-faced beauty, not one that relies on heavy use of cosmetics to hide or camouflage disproportionate features. As a result, Scandinavian models are world-renowned. Dating back to the sixties, they have earned a reputation for fantastic looks, a great work ethic, excellent command of English, and a calm presence, with no freak-outs and tantrums.
Do you remember Danish model Helena Christensen, back in the supermodel era? More recent names includes Emma Sjoberg and Elsa Sylvan -- and glamour model Victoria Silvstedt.
Greta Garbo
Scandinavian actresses have also reached international fame. The most famous of all are Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman, but we can also name Anita Ekberg, Liv Ullman, Dane Connie Nielsen, and Lena Olin.
Scandinavian beauty lights up track and field, plus sports such as golf and soccer. Think of Annika Sorenstam, Karin Koch (both golf), Carolina Kluft (heptathlon and long jump), Josefine Oqvist (soccer), Kajsa Berqvist, and Emma Green (both high jump).
Local beauty
Beauties with a local reputation who have not yet reached an international audience include news anchor Anna Lindmarker, actress Lena Endre, fashion writer Sofi Fahrman, tv stars Agneta Sjodin, Kattis Ahlstrom, Carola, Ebba Blitz, Jessica Almenas, Linda Bentzing, and the Graf sisters. And that is just the tiniest tip of the Scandinavian iceberg.
World of music
Nor must we forget the world of music. From Abba to the Cardigans with Nina Persson, Scandinavian beauty has stood center stage.
Stunning looks
I first fell in love with stunning Scandinavian good looks when my parents rented out an apartment to an art and photography student, Linnea Carlsson, from Uppsala, north of Stockholm.
Model's figure
She had the lightest blondest hair I had ever seen. She was gorgeous without make up, whereas every girl I knew in Chicago applied a face mask of cosmetics to look presentable.
Fashion blogger Sofi Fahrman
Linnea would melt by heart first thing in the morning when she opened her apartment door in t-shirt, running shorts, and bare feet. Of course, I had to invent reasons to call on her. Did she need anything to be fixed? A dripping faucet perhaps? Did she need a ride to school or the grocery store? Did she want to visit some of the downtown art galleries?
Not fazed
She took my eagerness in her stride, was never rude, and never once made me feel bad about my obvious and clumsy advances. I was very seriously in love with Linnea. I developed an interest in photography just to have something to talk about with her. We walked the same streets, looked at the same skyscrapers as Harry Callahan had done when he photographed Chicago so many years ago.
I bought maps, read biographies, and interviews just so I could retrace Harry Callahan's walks around the city and impress Linnea with my knowledge.
Supermodel Elsa Sylvan
She taught me the value of friendship with women. A man can be exceptionally close to, and trusted by, a woman if she feels safe in his company, if she knows he won't clutter and spoil the friendship with sexual advances
Unfortunately I was young and my hormones were rushing. I was so desperate to express myself sexually. Linnea told me she would sleep with me if it would help to calm me down, but I needed to know she did not love me, and sleeping with me did not mean we were together.
I later found out that this practical approach to sex is typically Scandinavian. Sex is not a taboo subject over there. Young Swedes even have a word for the type of sex you have between friends who are a couple in the romantic sense. It's called kompis knulla, or KK, which means a friend f--k.
The idea is that sex is something you can share between close friends because you like each other, perhaps need to be comforted, perhaps need to express your sexuality.
I, being a Midwesterner, could not cope with this idea. For me, if you were going to sleep with a girl, it went you were together, an item, a couple, hitched. It was not something you did simply because you were friends. So, foolishly or otherwise, I declined Linnea's kind offer.
Catwalk model Sara Blomqvist
Later, as a more mature but still young adult, I had a wonderful job as an assistant to a stylist who worked with a number of prominent photographers, magazines, and designers. One of my most enjoyable jobs was to make sure that a particularly beautiful pair of Manolo Blahnik high heels were sitting perfectly on the feet of an absolutely gorgeous Danish model, who later became very famous.
She was renowned for her strong will, striking, boyish features, and unhealthy habits of smoking and eating fast foot. But when she worked she was totally present, never allowing her concentration to lapse.
Former fashion model Emma Sjoberg
I spent longer than I needed fitting her Blahniks, confirming with the model whether they felt good, asking the photographer and stylist if they were happy with my work -- did I need to adjust?
"They're only shoes for goodness sake," said the model.
"They are not just shoes," screamed the stylist. "They are Blahniks."
By Bradley Forbes