Carolina Lindström

Who is Carolina Lindström?

Carolina Lindström, née Lundström, was a Swedish hat maker. She was the perhaps most notable of her trade in Sweden in the second half of the 19th century, and known in Stockholm as "Evening Star", because she was so often seen up working during the nights.

Her mother was a business woman, and she herself saved her money until she could afford to be an apprentice at the top hat maker in Stockholm, a French woman. Lindström had her own localities at Västerlånggatan 40 in 1842. She had a large web of contacts: at the death of the king in 1844, she was warned by the footmen at the royal palace so that she was able to acquire all the black mourning ribbons from the other milliners in the capital before the death had been publicly known. She was very successful, and opened a second shop at Hornsgatan. In 1847, she married a man who wasted all her money on gambling, but she quickly earned them back. In 1892, she left her business to one of her assistants and bought a place for herself at the Stockholm retirement home for merchant widows, however she died a couple of months after her retirement.

Her boutique was in 1995 the oldest fashion shop in Stockholm.