Acne held its show at the Pompidou Centre. The crowd on the outside of the windows was as many rows deep as the bleachers set up inside the famous museum. What could they have made of this collection with its sturdy tweed coats, their extreme volumes wrestled under control by thick rope lacing, and its sheer, breast-baring knits? Acne is a brand they're likely familiar with. There are three stores spread across the city, and its oversize motorcycle shearling from Fall '14 is on the back of every other model in town.
It's hard to connect the dots between the unstudied cool of that moto jacket and the mostly overwrought clothes on the runway tonight. The coats, for the most part, were OK. Although there was a lot of superfluous rope crisscrossing this season's shearlings, outerwear is very much in this Swedish brand's wheelhouse. The Viviane Sassen imagery that was converted into a woven raffia and used for high-waisted jeans and a fitted shirtwaist dress was a tougher sell, as were the busy patchwork pantsuits. Freeing the nipple is all very well, but surely there's something more substantial that could've been done with knits, which are another Acne staple.
Perhaps it's time for Acne founder Jonny Johansson and his team to go back to the simplicity of that sensational motorcycle shearling and start fresh. Either that or ditch the runway altogether in favor of a different way of promoting the brand. One suggestion overheard tonight: Throw a party. We know of at least a couple hundred people who'd be thrilled to show up. Their faces are pressed up against the glass at the back of these photos.
