If—thanks to the horror movie Midsommar—Sweden now reminds you of creepy cults and boys trapped inside hollowed-out bears (what, rather than “Dancing Queen” and salty licorice?), you may have found a home at Sweden’s own Acne Studios. Well, sort of. While Jonny Johansson didn’t spend the lockdown period on a brightly lit forest farm run by sacrifice-practicing lunatics—but in Stockholm—it did fill him with a sense of spiritual rebirth. “A little bit,” he said. “It feels like a transition to something more positive. I’m very optimistic about what’s happening. I feel positive. I spent more time with myself and my family, and just in the studio with people. It’s been a less stressful period, although the stress has come from somewhere else. I’ve been quite happy, actually, although I know that sounds weird.”
Maybe that explained why Johansson’s show notes referenced “gatherings for a spiritual moonrise” (cinemagoers will know what that’s Swedish for), and the garments quite literally reflected it. Everywhere you looked, there was a shiny, metallic, or iridescent texture. Within the context, it felt a bit like New Age spirituality, an element you could associate with the surfer culture Johansson belongs to. “When the sun is going down, hordes of people are staying on the beach looking at the sundown. It’s like a tribe of people that go towards the light,” he said.
The shine mingled with raw materials like crinkled paper, washed linens, and hemp on heels. Styled together, it had a certain density about it. A raggy dress in stained leather and tattered netting drove home the cultish association. There may have been a stringy straitjacket in there too. A collaboration with the Los Angeles–based artist Ben Quinn, who interprets his personal experiences with the mystical via supernatural imagery, produced various pieces that made the whole affair feel that extra-bit pagan.
Invited to experience a repeat of the show after its livestream, guests walked through a series of rooms in the Grand Palais, each reflecting a different time of day and the light that defines it. The looks were selected to match those different occasions. Models were lined up and walking around in circles, eerily staring up at a massive sunlamp as if they were participating in a séance. In all their textures and intricate cuts, they looked like the street style stars who pose for pictures outside fashion shows. Johansson suggested he was envisioning a wardrobe for the post-pandemic woman. If what she was searching for was the cult of full-throttle fashion aspiration, she’d have found her guru.
