My given name is Ann-Sofie Lakso. I was born in Sweden. In 1983 when I came to the US, I was given my nickname Fred. It stuck and has become one of my favorite names. I love the fact that Fred translated from Swedish into English means Peace.
In her teens Ann-Sofie began working as a fashion model. Modeling gave her the opportunity to travel and live around the world. Her journey exposed her to a wide and diverse range of cultures, art, design, and crafts. Knowledge gleaned from travel and other cultures influenced her to go on to study art, theater, and acting in both New York and Los Angeles.
In 1983, Ann-Sofie attended art school in New York. She took classes in Paris and Stockholm. In New York and Los Angeles, Ann-Sofie apprenticed with three well-known artists: Charles Bell, Ben Schonzeit, and Jeffrey Gold. These apprenticeships continued over a 10 year period.
Los Angeles painter and designer Jeffrey Gold and Ann-Sofie have continued to collaborate over the years on many diverse projects. Fine art jewelry is one of them. Jeffrey is the one who nicknamed her Fred—the name she is most commonly known by today.
In 1993, Fred opened a store called Upstairs. The shop quickly became the destination location for set-decorators, interior designers, costume designers for movies and television, celebrities, and design savvy clients.
Upstairs generated an impressive list of collaborations with production companies and people who made product placements for movies and TV. Fred also worked with private homes, many belonging to Hollywood's A-List Actors. In addition to the Upstairs products, Fred created her own exclusive clothing brand under the brandname: Fred.
In 2000, in addition to expanding Upstairs, Fred began work as a Creative Director. Her biggest client was Ford Motorcars and their stable of brands: Austin Martin, Range Rover, and Jaguar to name a few. Working as a Creative Director took her around the world and allowed her to continue to travel and study abroad.
In 2007, Fred returned to Sweden and made it her home base after 25 years abroad. Here she continued her interest in the inner journey and the introspection into human behavior. She educated herself to be a therapist, something she started in the United States. Fred's interest in philosophy, meditation, communication and spirituality is reflected in all that she does and is an important part of everything to her. You can see it in her art, photography, designs and writings.
Looking for the answer on how to be happy, outside of ourselves may be, I think, the greatest illusion of all.
About jewelry, I have a great deal of fondness for the art of craftsmanship, making jewelry is one of them. There is something soulful about an item being made by hand. I have been drawing and painting hands for a long time and always loved to observe paintings, pictures, classical and modern dance, how hands and arms are able to relay a story, mood, sentiment without words. When the time came to make a line of jewelry, hands became the natural subject.
The name FREDLOVES came to me one day when I sat and meditated. I was trying to figure out what a good brand name would be. As I sat quietly FREDLOVES came to me. It felt good and right and I trusted that.
Ann-Sofie “Fred” Lakso