This is the first post written on Sartorial Scandi. I want to start things off with a short introduction to who I am and my thoughts on what this blog is going to be.
Published at: Apr 23, 2024
Kristoffer Lund
My name is Kristoffer Lund, and I work as a frontend developer and engineering manager in Oslo, Norway. I also work as a music producer and DJ on the side, though that is more of a hobby or passion project at this point.
I have created this blog for a couple of different purposes. Firstly, I started the project when I was left with a bit more free time than I was used to, and because I wanted to spend this time keeping up with technologies I hadn't studied properly for a minute. Secondly, for some time, I wanted a place where I could write about one of my other big interests: fashion and menswear. It seemed appropriate to combine both of these goals into a blog format website. I will start by giving you some details on the tech stack I decided to go for.
This website is (as of September 2024) built with the following technology stack:
A pretty standard foundational setup, in my opinion. I had worked with a similar stack before, but with a previous version of Next.js and with Contentful for content management. I thought it would be valuable for my developer sense to explore the changes introduced to Next.js 14, especially considering the App Router, and I wanted to dive into Sanity because it had been a while since I used it actively in a project. I went to a meetup arranged by Sanity in Oslo and met a lot of really great people from the company as well as some businesses who were using Sanity in their products. Seeing some of the capabilities and creative use cases of a highly customisable CMS was a good sales pitch.
Moving forward I will use this site to test out some new functionalities and technologies here and there, but at the same time, I will focus on keeping the production environment stable and the content always available.
Okay, so let’s get to the topic that this blog actually will be focusing on. There are some really good blogs and magazines out there regarding menswear and fashion, but I think that Scandinavia and Norway, in particular, have a long way to go in this area. To my knowledge, while there are a couple of fashion magazines in Norway, menswear often has very low priority or is not included at all. In fact, the popular magazine MinMote decided to remove the "men’s" category altogether.
However, there are a couple of mediums I do feel deserve some recognition. First, I want to mention Enkeltspent. He has been at it for quite some time, and if you happen to know Norwegian, it's definitely worth a visit. I frequently visit his blog either to look for new content or to visit some old posts for inspiration. I also want to bring up the podcast Velkledd, which has become a favourite of mine to listen to. The esteemed tailor and designer Andreas Feet shares his knowledge in a comprehendible and empathic way, and I am always eager to listen to the latest new episode.
I have a mental plan of what I want to write about here, but I would be happy to take suggestions along the way to improve the content I produce or if there is a particular topic you want to hear more about. I like digging into the history of things, figuring out why things are the way they are, and I appreciate traditions with a funny or rich backstory. I want to write some guides, give some inspiration for outfits, do some reviews of experiences and clothes I’ve bought, and hopefully be able to give you something of value. The layout and design of the website will probably change as I get more content, but for now, I will go for something simple just to have a starting point.
I will write a post about my story and background, and how I fell into this field of interest. It's not very common for programmers to be as obsessed with fashion as I am, which also brings along topics like confidence and self-doubt when standing out from the crowd.
For now, I welcome you to my new blog, and I hope you find something you like here. If you want more frequent updates on outfits or you want to suggest some topics, you can find me on Instagram.
Cheers!
