Acne Studios
Design by Rachel Liu
Boutique Overview
Acne Studios, based in a Brutalist building at Floragaten 13 in central Stockholm, Acne is a dynamic fashion house that takes a unique, comprehensive and all-encompassing approach when it comes to its fashion. Creative Director Jonny Johansson draws upon art, post-modernist culture, photography and architecture to find his “alternative path” in design. Johansson’s style focuses on the minute details and the shaping of garments. Johansson’s collections cover men and women’s ready-to-wear, footwear, accessories and denim, but his use of diverse materials and custom fabrics make his lines standout from the rest. Expanding to Paris, Milan, New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing, Johansson’s artistry is fast becoming a fashion powerhouse, and with each city boasting its own distinctive character concept, Acne provides each city with its own fashion identity.
Acne Studios Fall/Winter 2021 Face collection was inspired, designed to “depict a ‘common Swedish citizen’; not very happy, not very sad. Just lagom [just in the middle]”. Thus, the rhetoric of the ‘chosen family’, a line that embraced yet transcended traditional values of kinship through block colors and 00s streetwear was created. In keeping with this family dynamic, Johannson tackles the “teenage spirit of experimentation” with the Spring/Summer 2022 Face collection. His line focuses on “looking back at adolescence and the moments that define who we are”. Johannson’s line is entirely unisex and plays with graphic ranging from Edvard Munch’s Madonna to mushroom prints, all encapsulating the whimsy of adolescent daydream and exploration to capture “the true portrait of adolescent self-expression today”.
Creative Director Jonny Johansson photographed at Acne Studios. Source: Iconhouse
Owner Bio
Jonny Johansson founded Acne Studios along with three other colleagues in 1996 at the age of just 26. ACNE stands for “Ambition to Create Novel Expressions” but of course in its abbreviation conjures images of pimples - not very fashionable. Yet Johansson invited the challenge. He liked the idea of "appropriating a difficult word" and making it novel and definitive, attributable perhaps to his childhood. A great inspiration of Johansson was his father who dressed for himself and Johansson took this mantra of being your own person in the creation of his own clothing line.
Acne is homed in Sweden’s capital and when you think Swedish design, you probably think neutral, muted tones and minimalist style. However, as Johansson said, Swedes: “we're often mistaken for minimalists but we're very colorful and love nature”, an ideal encompassed in the very fabric of his jeans made from multiple pairs of raw denim with red stitching. Inspired perhaps from his love of rock music (Johansson was originally a guitarist in several rock bands in his youth) and his dalliances with furniture design, these jeans he gave away to friends and family who didn’t like them because of they stood out. But in 1997, these jeans became popular after featuring in Vogue Paris and Elle Sweden and since then, Acne’s collections have always incorporated the unexpected or the contrasting because fashion is about showcasing the nuances in the self.
Johansson has seen to it that Acne Studios develop its own in-house magazine, Acne Paper. In an interview with Paige Powell, Johansson said he wanted to work on this project “with the best, let’s do what we want, let’s show what we talk about every time we do a collection and what we talk about during the creative process that’s never shown in the clothing…Let’s go out and try to connect with people.” That is the take home message and what we see in Johansson’s style, his fashion is collection and how that process of collection shapes the individual. As he says: “I collect people’s experiences. I feel that I build myself not only on my experience, but on other people’s”.
Inside Look
“It’s a temple. For me the idea of a temple is a place that belongs to no one but is owned by everyone. It’s part of our history but also the future. ”
Brand Highlights
The “Distortion” bag debuted in March 2021 but remains a standout due to its chic and unique “slanting” edges. With its sharp, geometric angles, Johansson presents his signature, architectural style whilst adding animal print to his fashion repertoire.
Photographer: Richard Burbridge
Acne Studios’ SS22 collection is defined by its blend of elegant and raw fabrics. Acne mixes the dystopian and the futuristic with the artful historic - a renaissance of fashion as we emerge into our post-pandemic new norm. Through the layering of textures we see the layering of the ages; history in the making.
“It’s about a juxtaposition of grandeur with fierce energy, and the possibilities of play” - Johansson
Acne Studios redefines the nostalgia cycle of fashion as intuitive and subversive through this sheer wrap dress and upturned corset rebirthing old and restrictive fashion modes as liberating.
The Men’s line revolves around ephemerality and the nomadic, with a reflection on lockdown life. With earthy tones and a focus on organic textures, Johansson asks us to reflect on how we were locked away from our natural roots, “this collection is about how a language of clothing evolves within communities, mixing and contrasting pieces together”.
Turning from those muted, earth tones, Acne Studios dazzles us with bright block colors and oversized silhouettes in the Face Collection. The unisex sizing and shaping unveils the line’s theme of teenage experimental expression, and the iconic graphic prints plays on the adolescent desire for expressive culture.
Johansson’s definitive denim look, timeless elegance.
Welcoming the opening of the Norrmalmstorg store. The epitome of both high fashion and Johansson’s exclamation: “I’m not into fancy stuff”.
The iconic Acne Studios scarf. All wrapped up in a chic, timeless style of monochrome checks.
Taking the scarf from winter to summer. The weightless bandana scarf, a signature to the brand is printed to fit Acne’s ready-to-wear aesthetic.
Photography: Anders Edström
Acne’s more colorful fashion ventures, the Men’s SS22 line of relaxed lines, bold prints emphasize togetherness and unity world, “the wild freedom of style that comes when communities finally come together”.
In keeping with Acne’s multicultural togetherness, it’s knot motif bags in multiple sizing owes its inspiration to the traditional Japanese obi sash.
Marching into the SS22 collection in bold, wooden platforms definitive of Johansson’s turn to ergonomic fashion.
Aged-leather skirts with a shadow of red stitching mirrored in the chiffon blouses’ pattern, Johansson certainly returns to his roots and adds a personal touch to his “collection about self-identity and instinct”.
Edited By Kieryn Alexander