Acne Studios: 30th Anniversary, Control & Creative Vision

That collection will certainly be the initial symptom in item of Acne’s 30th-anniversary year: in an extremely various form to its existing incarnation, the brand name was developed back in 1996, when Johansson was simply 25.

Early Days and Pivotal Decisions

Johansson recalls that when he initially saw it back in 2007 approximately, “I was in love, totally mesmerised.” Nevertheless, Mikael Schiller, Acne Studios’s exec chair and Johansson’s co-owner of a 59 percent majority risk in the brand, harboured appointments. “It was pricey. I remember we suggested in the taxi afterwards regarding whether it was a great idea. Yet we had simply had our initial huge meeting in fashion– that was just one of the pieces in the problem that made us believe bigger,” Johansson remembers. After robust conversations, he and Schiller made a decision to roll the dice on Palais Royal, “since Paris was the first genuine worldwide stage we were trying to enter. We were additionally trying to mature, in a way.”

Japanese Influence and Future Plans

The collection we will certainly see in Paris on Wednesday is, Johansson states, inflected by the nation he initially saw as an aspiring rock star: Japan. This July, Acne Studios will certainly open another store, next to Prada, in Tokyo’s Aoyama area. He says the recently built structure, developed by Christian and Ruxandra Halleroed, “looks nearly naked– it is really Swedish in that means”. When it comes to the collection, he adds: “That link with Japan has actually been looming large in my mind. The collection includes our text translated right into Japanese, and there are numerous other little bits and bobs that make me think about Japan– but you will need to wait and see when we fulfill at the presentation.”

The anniversary is not yet front of mind for Johansson. In the meantime, he’s engaged with even more imminent needs on his creative control of a business that in 2024 approximated its incomes at in between EUR300 million and EUR350 million. As well as the new collection, this Paris menswear week will see Acne Studios open up a “sort of gallery” in the Palais Royal space that became its first-ever Paris store back in 2008.

A couple of years earlier, states Johansson, he ended up being frustrated and came very close to stepping back from having daily imaginative oversight of the brand name. “I was sitting in all these meetings where I was extremely much from making these layouts myself,” he remembers. I believed I was going to give up.

Creative Control & Financial Restructuring

Today, Acne Studios continues to navigate the line in between particular niche and mainstream with distinctive guarantee. A more monetary restructuring saw its initial outdoors financiers exit in 2018, and Johansson and Schiller’s holding lost weight to that still authoritative 59 per cent. It is here that Johansson supplies his line concerning the significance of control.

“My advice to individuals that intend to have companies that do what we do is this: control is the only point that is essential.” Jonny Johansson, owner and innovative supervisor of Acne Studios, is talking before tomorrow’s showroom discussion for its Spring/Summer 2026 menswear collection. That collection will be the very first symptom in product of Acne’s 30th-anniversary year: in a very various kind to its existing incarnation, the brand was developed back in 1996, when Johansson was just 25.

Schiller joined Acne in the very early 2000s, which makes Johansson the only initial participant of a brand name for which, at the start, style was simply an afterthought. As Johansson recalls, it was something he dropped right into virtually by chance. Later, the band was signed to CBS: while tape-recording their first cd, says Johansson, his bandmates kicked him out of the line-up.

From Band Dropout to Fashion Success

This was the factor at which ACNE stumbled onto the course that would certainly specify its fate. Johansson developed 100 sets of red-stitched pants as a sort of organic marketing hustle: the concept was to offer them away to buddies and family members. The Italian manufacturing facility he initially approached declined such a small order, so Johansson went local.

As Johansson remembers, he and Schiller safeguarded a financial institution financing, many thanks to a link of Schiller’s, which permitted them to get out the brand name. They then took adequate financial investment, for around 20 per cent at initially, to permit them to keep majority control of what at this point became Acne Studios, pay-off the loan, and maintain some funds to play with. The brand’s acronym was altered to ‘Ambition to Create Unique Expression’, and its focus shifted virtually specifically– Acne Paper apart– to expanding its style identity.

Stockholm Roots and Global Ambitions

One day, editor Tyler Brûlé passed the first-floor ACNE office-slash-store in Stockholm, and asked his assistant to ask and call the bell what was taking place. “We had this idea that every little thing should be touched by us, attracted by us, made by us. We got a big spread in Wallpaper *, which was significant likewise,” informs Johansson.

Mikael Schiller, Acne Studios’s executive chair and Johansson’s co-owner of a 59 per cent majority risk in the brand name, harboured reservations. Schiller signed up with Acne in the very early 2000s, which makes Johansson the only original participant of a brand name for which, at the start, style was merely a second thought. It was there he first encountered some of the various other core personnel– Mats Johansson, Jesper Kouthoofd and Tomas Skoging– with whom he would located ACNE, in its original all-caps type. The exact same year that the Paris shop opened, Johansson presented Acne Studio’s very first fashion show at London Fashion Week, “because Stockholm was not a worldwide arena when it came to push”.

The initial ACNE was a kind of agency-cum-multidiscipliary creative cumulative. They virtually sacked me at one point since they were placing so much cash into my style thing and it was adding so little. Fortunately, I had some cash in the financial institution, and they asked me if I would certainly like to spend,” Johansson remembers.

Johansson characterises these early years of style trial and error as a tightrope walk. Johansson and his collaborators worked it out.

Today, Johansson concentrates as much (if not more) on design as he does on administration. “For me, the thing I appreciate the most is functioning with my colleagues carefully and seeing in some cases that I thrill them,” he explains.

As our chat winds down, Johansson observes: “What’s extremely flexible with fashion is that it is something lively however still at the same time actual– it’s a sector, not simply an artform. I dreamed of being an artist throughout my entire upbringing, however I’m grateful I didn’t end up in a rock band that just expanded old.

I thought I was going to give up. I went on with this up until I was halfway out.

The very same year that the Paris shop opened, Johansson offered Acne Studio’s very first style program at London Style Week, “since Stockholm was not a worldwide sector when it came to press”. The resulting program and collection bundled scans made by artist and digital photographer Katerina Jebb of Marie Antoinette’s dress and Napoleon Bonaparte’s jacket, which were superimposed over Johansson’s garments. “I was believing about not having a background in fashion itself, and questioning if there is any type of method I can soak up a fashion spirit from this brand-new context,” he claims.

One day, he was detected by marketer Balthazar Silveira, who assumed Johansson looked amazing, and invited him to his club in the city. It was there he initially experienced some of the other core workers– Mats Johansson, Jesper Kouthoofd and Tomas Skoging– with whom he would found ACNE, in its original all-caps form.

The first couple of years were psychologically challenging. We had that reduced confidence at that factor,” Johansson discusses.

New Gallery & Acne Paper’s Legacy

The gallery will be a conceptual expansion of Acne Paper, the well-regarded semiannual magazine the brand established in 2004 under the editorship of Thomas Persson. The title, in print up until 2014, was restored in 2021 as a book, and has actually given that returned to yearly magazine. States Johansson of the brand-new room: “It’s a place for the partners of Acne Paper to reveal themselves, and maybe begin some brand-new imaginative journeys. They ought to consider it as a brand-new type of blank web page, without any gallery pressure.”

Palais Royal closed as a store a few months ago in order to include the new gallery. Its operations have been folded right into those of Acne Studios’s two extra lately opened Paris stores: one on Rue Saint-Honoré, the various other on Rue Froissart in Le Marais. But Palais Royal remains a typical address for the brand name.