Only at Acne does a collection premised on a "functional gardening look" include a gold-foil-stamped linen suit. Or a pair of swingy shorts covered in iridescent sequins. Disco horticulture!
But the antic energy Jonny Johansson brings to Acne's women's collections—one he conserves for the workroom, to judge from his plainspoken explanations—has a fizz that can't be denied. On a wet, gray June day, it was hard not be grateful for that, and for the tropical Jack Pierson photographs that were blown up to set the stage for the show. Johansson explained that he'd recently bought a new house in Stockholm with a beautiful, ruined garden. He was fascinated with the idea of coaxing life out of it. Thus the new collection. It may come in hothouse colors, but that's how Acne's garden grows.
In fact, this felt pared back from some of Acne's recent outings, with their wild, inflated volumes. Here, the air had been let out a bit. What seemed like acres of fabric still flowed—some of the long sheaths had tails so long they needed knotting together—but they followed a more natural line. Is that something to do with Melanie Ward, the stylist most famous for finessing Helmut Lang's less-is-more collections in the nineties? Maybe. Resort marked her debut styling the show.
But primary credit to the designer, in whom the garden brought out the best. There was a great knock-around jacket in garment-dyed cotton with ponyskin patches that actually did look ready for a tumble in the dirt. The workwear bit may have disguised some of the glamour—that bustier top will look great without the shirt, on anyone with the toned abs that are emerging as Resort's must-have accessory—but there's also a kind of outré glamour in work, too. It was hard not to think of Katharine Hepburn, making her sole Oscars appearance in her gardening togs, outshining the rest of the world in their gowns.
