Skin-tight jumpsuits, satin capes, towering platform boots and more sequins than seems physically possible: ABBA’s 1970s stage wardrobe is almost as famous as their songs. For years one explanation has followed those outfits around, namely that they were designed to be so outrageous because it saved the band money on tax. Vanity Fair Italia has revisited the story this week, and the man who made many of the costumes tells it rather differently.
Where the tax story comes from
The theory took off in February 2014, when The Guardian reported on ABBA: The Official Photo Book, published to mark 40 years since the group won Eurovision with Waterloo in 1974. The book pointed to a rule in Swedish tax law at the time: performers could deduct the cost of stage clothes, but only if those clothes were unsuitable for everyday wear. An ordinary suit might count as a personal wardrobe; a sequinned catsuit with a cape almost certainly would not. That did not make the outfits free, but it meant their cost could come off taxable income.
Björn Ulvaeus added fuel with typical self-mockery, saying in the book that the band “looked like nuts in those years” and that nobody could have been as badly dressed on stage as they were. NPR picked up the story soon after, and it has been one of the best-loved bits of ABBA trivia ever since.
The costume designer’s version
Much of that wardrobe was the work of Owe Sandström, a Swedish designer who also trained in natural sciences and taught zoology. With Lars Wigenius he ran the costume business Artist Dressing, and it was Anni-Frid Lyngstad who first brought the rest of the band to his studio. When he asked what they wanted, Björn told him that nothing was too wild, and Sandström took him at his word. His creations include the yellow and blue cat dresses worn by Agnetha and Frida, and many of his pieces are now on display at ABBA The Museum in Stockholm.
Speaking to the design podcast 99% Invisible, Sandström confirmed that the tax rule was real and that other artists had asked him for stage clothes that would qualify. With ABBA, he said, it was never part of the brief. His ideas came from animals, the circus and pure experimentation. So the band may well have claimed the deduction, but that is a different thing from dressing for it.
If you love a little seventies sparkle, you do not need a cape to get it. Gold-toned citrine earrings, a bold jewellery set or a stack of bracelets catch the light in the same spirit, and plenty of our multi-gemstone rings would look right at home under a mirror ball.
Sources: Vanity Fair Italia (19 October 2026); The Guardian (16 February 2014); NPR (2 March 2014); 99% Invisible, Mini-Stories: Volume 9; abbasite.com. Featured photo: Kaboompics via Pexels.
