Ann-Sofie Johansson Ann-Sofie Johansson Ann-Sofie Johansson is a Swedish fashion designer, known for being the Creative Advisor and former Head of Design for retailer H&M. Johansson grew up in Ronneby, an hour away from Stockholm, Sweden. As a youth, she shopped often at H&M, calling it the "heaven of fashion". After first thinking about becoming a veterinarian, Johansson instead pursued art science studies and archaeology at Gothenburg and Lund universities – it was then that she realized she wanted a career involving artistic creativity. She took some evening courses in design at the Anders Beckman's School in Stockholm. In 1987, after deciding
Principles (retailer) Principles (retailer) Principles was a UK-based fashion retailer founded in 1984. The firm was launched by the Burton Group (now Arcadia Group) as an attempt to capitalise on the new modern trends in fashion; the mid-1980s was the boom era for the yuppie, a new upmarket cultural movement, and power dressing was a key trend: at the time, the Group's ladies' fashion operations (chiefly Dorothy Perkins) were more mainstream and traditional. Principles was the first newly launched chain from the firm since Topman in 1978, with the majority of the company's growth over the years having come from acquisitions. In