Fröken Frimans Krig

Almost every year at Christmas Swedish television shows a costume drama in a few episodes, usually filmed in Sweden during the last year. The shooting of this years series started a few weeks ago. It's called "Fröken Frimans Krig" ("Miss Friman's War"), takes place in the year 1905, and is about the class differences and political causes women fought for in the beginning of the 20th century. But the biggest part of the story tells the tale of the food store "Svenska Hem" ("Swedish Homes") - owned by only women - that opened in Stockholm in 1905 as a protest against bad working conditions and food scams that went on during those days. Rotten meat was, for example, dyed to look fresh again and then sold to unknowing customers, spreading diseases like TBC.

I have done work as an extra only once in my whole life before, but when I heard they needed people for this series, I applied - and they wanted me! As you can imagine, for a vintage nerd like me, stepping into wardrobe to get fitted for my costume was like taking a peak into early 1900s clothing-heaven! A big room filled with both vintage and newly made clothes from this era, for both men and women. And then there were hats, parasols, jewelry, shoes, and all kinds of imaginable accessories people used in those days! I was dressed to be an upper class lady. And this is how I looked:

I did my own, very simple makeup, but it was lovely to sit down and have my hair done by someone else for a change. Wish I had taken a picture of it before the hat went on though.

And these were my shoes!!! The well worn, very soft leather made them really comfortable. But lacing them up took a while...

The first of the two times I've been on set we were at a really old restaurant called "Den Gyldene Freden" in the Old Town. Here are some other extras waiting to be called up on set.

The second time the scenery was a tea and coffee shop that had been rented and changed into a 1905-looking food store. 

Everything looked really genuine inside the store, and I love when so much attention is put into every little detail when making a costume drama!

Here are a some of the other extras from that day. It was pretty funny to get us all - with hats, long skirts, canes and parasols into two cabs to go from wardrobe to location. Haha!

Loved this lilac outfit, and that hat!!!

And here is Hanna, who "worked" in the food store, and attended to my needs as her customer in one of the scenes. As I was an over class lady, and Hanna just a simple shop assistant, I refused to talk to her for the rest of the day!... Ok, the biggest reason for not talking so much was that we fell asleep beside each other during the times we weren't needed in front of the camera. Getting up at 4 am after sleeping about two hours makes you a bit tired for some reason...

And here is a picture of me inside the shop, examining a can of peas! This drama will be in three parts. But if the audience likes it, three more episodes will be filmed later. So if they need me more in the future, I wouldn't say no to jumping into these clothes again!