“When I see people wearing denim today it seems new again,” said Jonny Johansson over speakerphone from Sweden. Kept at home by family matters, he was checking in to the presentation in Paris, where Acne Studios was unveiling the results of the creatively fired founder’s return to a genre he calls “rebellious denim.” The fabric is Acne’s staple and cornerstone, but often in this most “elevated” collection is shown as a side-dish, if at all. Today it proudly returned to the podium.
Johansson shot this lookbook on Yves Tumor, an artist he says typifies the shapeshifting chimera spirit he worked his denim to amplify. He said: “when I was with Yves they were always moving and their look was always changing: not considered but also composed.”
Much of the denim was printed with trompe l’oeil effects, like chains and straps. “This is very surface, which feels very contemporary-futuristic as well as sustainable,” he said. Similarly, the ribbed knit baselayer pants and top that appeared painted were smooth to the touch, their image embedded by print in the fabric.
Cyberpunk—a word now over 40 years old—seemed revived (updated of course) in the articulated bulbous-legged work-jeans, strappy shorts, fluoro accents, and hypertight shirting. Johansson said he swung between a loose high, skinny low silhouette and its opposite as the only point of order in a collection that was otherwise riotous. Shearling lined boots with back pocket uppers, denim bags and candy toned super-sized fur hats were amongst the additions that felt both throwback and fresh. A skirt printed with a black gloved hand sticking its middle finger upwards nicely captured a mood that never gets old because there is always a new generation stepping up to feel it.