Fashion's candy store

The couple Hugrun and Magni opened the first Kronkron store on Laugavegur 55 over a year ago. The tiny store grew fast and soon became too small. And so they relocated further up the street to a bigger space at Laugavegur 63 entering from Vitastigur. The store is bright and spacious with tempting colors and beautiful pieces.

In the beginning Kronkron started selling clothes from a few pioneering designers in Europe, such as KTZ, Marjan Pejoski, famous for making Björk's swan dress, and Danish designers Helle Mardahl and Wood wood. They kept finding new designers and collections that they wanted in the store, such as Eley Kishimoto, Roksanda Illinicic, Henrik Vibskov and Vivienne Westwood. "We travel to find new fascinating designers and we always need to be on the lookout, to see who just graduated or came out with an exciting collection. When we see something we like we trust our instinct and go for it" says Hugrun about their collections. Kronkron's aim is to serve a broad range of customers of all ages, men and women but like Hugrun says: "Our wish is to be mesmerizing and entertaining at the same time we take our job very seriously." And the new space gives room for even more fun.

Hugrun and Magni are very passionate about the store and have a strong vision. It has always been their goal to introduce to Icelanders bona fide fashion. They make an effort to choose strong designers that have a leading role in their field, Vivienne Westwood being the queen of fashion without a doubt. The tennis player Fred Perry was the first to play Wimbledon in a t-shirt and his company has done a great job in bringing in interesting designers and artists to create new limited collections. Wood wood are fun guys from Copenhagen with amusing stuff and also from Denmark are Henrik Vibskov and Peter Jensen, who are at the forefront of Danish cutting-edge fashion. "Quality and design is what we care about the most" says Hugrun. "We pick designers that are not necessarily big but rather up and coming."

The Kronkron fairytale started five years ago when Hugrun and Magni opened the shoe store Kron and started selling colorful shoes at a time when Icelanders wore only black and brown shoes. The shoe store still holds it place on Laugavegur 48 but during this time incredible changes have occurred in the way Icelanders view fashion. Only recently has authentic fashion begun to thrive and design boutiques are on the rise. At the same time Icelandic designers are gaining more recognition both at home and abroad. Only a few years ago was it possible to study fashion design at The Iceland Academy of the Arts and two years ago the first Icelandic fashion designers graduated in Iceland.

In addition to collections by Vivienne Westwood, Aganovich & Yung, Camilla Staerk, Eley Kishimoto, Roksanda Ilincic, Marjan Pejoski, Henrik Vibskov, Wood wood, Fred Perry, Humanoid, KTZ, Peter Jensen, Bernhard Willhelm, Umbro by Kim Jones, Tatty Divine, Nike limited and Cheap Monday, Kronkron also sells shoes for men and women, accessories, handbags and beautiful handmade candy, made by the same family since 1891.

Hanna Björk Valsdóttir

Photo by Stefán Karlsson