There was a moment, not so long ago, when the clothes on Acne Studios' runways and the clothes in Acne's stores looked as though they'd gone their separate ways. The catwalk didn't reflect the Swedish label's streetwear roots. Founder Jonny Johansson set out to correct that last season to a lot of positive feedback. But in retrospect, Spring looks like a collection in reset mode, played out in a minor key. Today's show was much bolder. Johansson and his design team took bigger risks and reaped bigger rewards.
Johansson was thinking about the sea. Before the show he explained that he'd spent the summer learning how to surf with his young children at his new beach house in Stockholm and on a trip to L.A., where Acne just opened a store. The personal nature of his starting point reverberated in a collection that connected on many levels.
Inspired by the movement of water, undulating screen prints on tweeds keyed into Fall's developing story about optic patterns. In theory, psychedelic swirls paired with oversize leopard prints shouldn't work, but in practice they did. Sweater dressing is the season's hot topic, and Acne had ideas to contribute, including ribbed knits that draped the body like beach towels, and a more conventional pullover intarsia-ed with waves. Johansson said he was particularly proud of the sweater dresses, and he should be. Elsewhere, he tweaked classic workwear shapes in sunset colors and remade surfer staples like anoraks and long, slouchy board shorts in leather. As for the pom-pom hats, they were so crazy large they're all but guaranteed to be a massive hit.
