Elise’s ethical glam: – I love to sparkle!

This Christmas Oslo’s vintage loving queen and slow-fashion entrepeneur Elise Dingstad goes green. Literally.

“This has to be the party dress of the year,” says Elise Dingstad, as she picks out an emerald green, ‘70s-inspired lurex dress from the rails in her boutique. The dress is part of Diana’s Vintage – the ethically produced fashion line she designs with business partner Ellen Marie Garåsen. The duo owns the bohemian chic boutique Frøken Dianas Salonger in Oslo and specialize in clothes for women who like to stand out in a crowd. Their collections are inspired by glamour, vintage aesthetics, and iconic looks sourced from fashion history.

“This dress works just as well for a Christmas party as it does for a family dinner,” she adds, noting that it comes in a range of shades as well as a velvet version adorned with sparkling stones, a decidedly Hollywood-glamour look. The pieces are soft, stretchy, and flattering across all sizes.

“If dresses aren’t your thing, we also make jumpsuits,” she says, grabbing a glittering jumpsuit in the same fabric from the rails. The jumpsuit have flaired legs and depending on what styling you choose, it can go from a Schiaparelli 1930s-look to pure Studio 54-disco-glam.

The boutique Frøken Diana’s Salonger is located at Grünerløkka, Oslo’s most vibrant and bohemian neighbourhood. Often compared to Berlin’s Kreuzberg or Copenhagen’s Nørrebro, it’s a district where industrial heritage meets contemporary cool. Formerly a working-class area full of factories and warehouses, Grünerløkka has transformed into a magnet for creatives, students, and young professionals.

Both Dingstad and Garåsen come from acting backgrounds, so when they decided to open a vintage boutique back in 2008 it was no surprise that they named their baby after a bordello in Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler”. In the play Diana’s Salon is a shady establishment where one of Hedda’s suitors famously shoots himself in the groin while drunk, a shadowy place of indulgence and downfall. It is run by the beautiful red-haired Diana who, of course, now features on the boutique’s logo.

When Dingstad and Garåsen launched the boutique, the plan was to focus entirely on vintage.

“We sold everything from homeware to clothing. But the clothes were what really took off,” Elise explains.

“Then the pandemic hit, and online shopping became essential—but selling vintage online is tricky. There’s often only one of each item, and many pieces come in small sizes, requiring exact measurements. So we decided to create our own vintage-inspired line alongside the curated vintage we still offer.”

Their label Diana’s Vintage launched in 2018, marrying vintage inspiration with contemporary sizing and fit. Customers appreciate that the garments flatter a larger range of body types.

“We want to encourage women to be bolder, to step out of all-black and into color, glitter, and play. Clothes don’t have to be so serious,” Elise says.

In a world dominated by polluting fast fashion, Elise and her business partner has a firm belief in ethically produced, slow fashion. The brand doesn’t chase trends but instead creates what they themselves wish existed, drawing inspiration from historical fashion eras.

On our visit the rain was pouring down outside. Elise, a typical Scandinavian, arrived on her bike, wearing her high-waisted yellow lurex trousers with a bright red sweater tucked in, matched with sparkling costume jewellery beneath her full rain suit.

“The trouser style is inspired by Katharine Hepburn and will launch in spring,” she notes.

Large pearl and crystal jewellery catch the light. She laughs as she recounts her love for thrift shopping, a passion that began at age twelve.

“I’m a maximalist. I love jewellery, hats, colours, everything that sparkles. I mix textures—glossy with matte, glitter with matte surfaces, prints, full-on colour blocking, or outfits in multiple shades of the same colour. And bad weather? Never a reason not to dress up,” she says.

Although the main focus today is their own designs, the boutique still offers vintage clothing. This fall, they opened Blusesalongen next door, a shop dedicated to blouses and select vintage pieces. In December, the window even features a blouse advent calendar, where customers can win a specially chosen top each day.

“Blouses have been our biggest vintage category, and thanks to excellent suppliers in Asia, we can offer an enormous selection of Japanese blouses in all sizes,” Elise says.

For many shoppers, cultivating a personal style outweighs the need for hyper-commercial fashion, and Frøken Diana’s Salonger has seen significant growth in recent years. Last year, the business turned over nearly 40 million NOK; this year, Elise expects to surpass 50 million.

“We may be flying somewhat under the radar in Norway’s mainstream fashion scene. We’re not invited to industry events, award ceremonies, or the like, even though we are female founders with a strong focus on ethics and sustainability. But we’re not complaining. We’ve found our niche,” she says with a smile.

Sustainability lies at the very heart of the boutique’s business model.

“That is also why we chose Fair & Square as our factory when we launched Diana’s Vintage. It is a truly unique factory within the textile industry, operating under Norwegian-style labour rights and working conditions for its employees. In an industry marked by exploitation — long working hours, underpayment, poor safety standards, and more — the conditions at this factory are something most textile workers can only dream of,” says Elise.

“Ethical considerations also guide our selection of other brands we carry. That is precisely why, for example, we stock King Louie, a brand that maintains high ethical standards throughout its production chain, both in terms of labour conditions and sustainability” she adds.

For those on the hunt for a second-hand gem, Elise offers her advice:

“To find the perfect vintage dress, you need patience. Don’t go in with a very specific idea of what you want to buy, because that will rarely work out for you. But when you find something that speaks to you, go for it! It does not really matter if you have an occation or not, the occasion will rise sooner or later,” says Elise. And the selection in her vintage boutique (photos below) is proof you really should dedicate time when you hunt for the most exquisite vintage items.

She explains how she often starts with picking an item in a color she loves, and goes on to build an entire look based on that. Early planning is key, especially for Christmas parties. At this year’s holiday gathering, she went full-on gold glamour: “I found a hyper glam dress five or six years ago, but never wore it until now. I topped it with doing my hair up like a Christmas tree. The result was over-the-top, playful, and absolutely stunning,” she says.