Whistles Blog

Here’s a sneak peak..

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ACNE STUDIOS PRE-FALL 2010

“I remember the time when TV was the height of contemporary. For me, that tv genereation was all about wait and anticipation. It was the expectation of what things could be, like seen on MTV. Sometimes these moments of nothing give you creativity, and that is where I started for pre-fall 2012. We played with the girls of the MTV generation pimping their school uniforms. Black and white stripes combined with techno silvers and tv test pattern prints. Flat cottons and technical stretches juxtapose long haired shearlings. The silhouette is straightforward with a clean line. The skirts lengths are short and on the hip, whilst jackets are long and mannish.”

- Jonny Johansson

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The ACNE AW12 Women’s Collection is NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE!

Expect to see more taut behinds sporting the Acne denim label strutting around Oxford Street this weekend. Sweden’s cult fashion brand, which stands for Ambition to Create Novel Expression, has opened the doors to its first Australian boutique on Paddington’s Glenmore Road.

A stone’s throw from Kit Willow and ksubi’s store, the Acne Studio is the first of its kind south of Stockholm and has been built to reflect the brand’s signature design concept which speaks of luxury, vintage and European architecture.

The stylish studio is stocked up with the brand’s spring/summer 2009 collection, plus men’s and women’s denim pieces and must-have accessories.

Fashionistas outside the Paddington postcode can still save on international shipping by shopping for the label at www.thenewguard.com.au.

The ACNE Studio, 28 Glenmore Road, Paddington. Phone: (02) 9360 0294.

We left Hamburg to go to Stockholm and what happend? Stockholm is coming to Hamburg. The Swedish fashion label “Acne” will open a Pop-Up Archive store in Hamburgs Schanzen Quarter.
From the 7th -17th August 2009 the Archive store will be based in the mono concept store,
Rosenhofstr. 5, 20357 Hamburg, in the heart of the “Schanze”. The mono concept store is the home of the Hamburg fashion label mono concept and the mono gallery, which serves as a platform for young artists.
This will be the first time Acne opens an Archive store outside of Scandinavia. Next to old classics and rare recycled pieces there will also be heavily reduced pieces from the ss09 Acne collection.
Grand Opening Acne Archive
06. August 2009
20:00 – 22:00 Uhr
Acne Archive @ mono concept.
07. – 17. August 2009
Mo. – Fr. 11:30 Uhr – 19:30 Uhr
Sa. 11:00 – 18:30 Uhr

Post-presentation interviews are daunting for any designer. Agreeing to be interviewed the morning after said presentation’s drinks reception is braver still. So, over several glasses of water, Acne’s Creative Director Jonny Johansson takes time out at the label’s London studio to take us through the new ‘Pop’ line and showcase the incredible Acne SS10 main line collection. We even found time to chew the fat; musing spirituality, oddity and erm, Neil Young.

Acne followed last season’s inspired presentation at the Sir John Soane’s Museum with an electrically charged presentation at the Barbican’s Curve Gallery. An ethereal projection; an experiment with light and crystals from acclaimed artist Katerina Jebb, entitled ‘Untitled Film No1′, acted as backdrop to the Stockholm-based label’s SS10 main line collections. A collection that caused ladies everywhere to rejoice. And as if the privilege of witnessing the SS10 collection wasn’t enough, were also treated to a preview of Acne’s first ‘Pop” collection for women. Ladies, no longer will you have to trawl through your boyfriend’s wardrobe in order to don the preppy casuals that have made Acne the brand it is today. Acne are FINALLY offering up myriad ‘must have’ basics, dedicated to the fairer sex.

“I felt that we’re always going to be working with classics, and ‘generic’ is a word that I like a lot. So, we ended up with this ‘classic’ idea being a collection very inspired by the heritage of our brand” says Jonny Johansson, Acne’s Creative Director. “We’ve always said that the ‘pop’ aesthetic is who and what we are.” And its true. Acne embody everything we come to expect from ‘pop’: young, easy, and of the moment – yet somehow everlasting and era defining, interesting enough to make you look twice but adequately standard to let you build on it. These ideas are fundamental to the ethos of the women’s ‘Pop’ collection.

Up until now, the Acne ‘Pop’ lines have been mainly based on menswear, although, as usually happens with great men’s lines, women start adopting pieces from them – the shirts, the jackets and, yes, the chinos. Jonny has always been interested in taking elements from one, say, a man’s blazer, and working it in a collection of angular, sexy dresses. But it is also something he likes to reciprocate as well: “To be honest, I’ve always liked referencing details, sometimes pieces even, from the womenswear collection and reiterating them in the mens collections. I think there’s more energy there.” Anyone familiar with Acne will take this as a given, considering the transferability and unisex nature of the line. For the new collection, Johansson felt an urge to reference Acne’s humble beginnings, in particularly the late 90s. Acne’s first women’s ‘Pop’ collection is inspired, in part, by Neil Young. As Jonny explains, “I found this CD, Neil Young’s Harvest Moon, and I remember I was listening to it back in the late 90′s when were first launched the label. I gave it out to everyone at the studio and said, “This is it. This is what we’ll work with. Some liked it, some didn’t!”

The first decision it influenced was the colour palette, obviously inspired by the somewhat austere imagery of the album’s artwork. Jonny and the team worked, again, around basics, opting for a palette of black, white, blue and grey. The only colour in the collection was achieved by systematically playing around with the samples, bleaching and washing them in succession to achieve the desired effects. Classic techniques for a classic collection one assumes! So, given the recent 90′s revival, was referencing the late 90s an easy thing for Jonny? “No”, he answers directly, “because I wasn’t a clothing designer back then. I made furniture. That whole period was a very difficult time for me because I wasn’t very experienced.” The era of Martin Margiela, of deconstruction and the Belgian movement was a liberating time though, and has made a big enough impression on him to influence his thinking. “Initially we made a ‘business’ plan about what we should do, but of course, we didn’t follow it.” he muses. What they did follow however, and what is fundamentally the cornerstone of everything about Acne, is their proposition that “fashion is more than just a piece of clothing” and the notion that “fashion is merely about who is influencing whom and why.”

Building a label from grass roots level into the international brand that Acne has become takes sheer hard work and determination, yet Jonny is the first to admit he’s been, “very lucky”. That said, the hard work has been evident from the start. His need to maintain complete creative control over all things Acne meant there was only one person fit to renovate the first Acne studio, situated on, what Jonny now refers to as, “the cheapest commercial street in town”. His skills as a craftsman were put to full use as he knocked together the entire studio, furniture included. But, as we said, fortune does seem to favour the Acne posse. A chance meeting with Tyler Brûlé (of Wallpaper magazine) led to a huge Acne feature in the style mag, which “kick started everything”.

Of course that was then, and Acne is a different entity now. The women that are already drooling over the label’s main collection for SS10 certainly believe Acne’s success is down to more than just luck. Acne’s mainline presentation of SS10 couldn’t be more different from the ‘Pop’ line. It has a real sense of spirituality. Gone are the hard edges and emphasis on construction we have seen over the last few seasons. In its place are softer lines with a silhouette that fits closer to the body – longer and more fluid. For Jonny and the team it was a move away from an emphasis on the material and price, “There’s been a lot of sensationalism about ‘the most expensive garment you can make’ and it’s become a strategic choice for some designers to make something basic, like a t-shirt, very expensive. I don’t think clothes should be cheap and shoddy, quality should be consistent and representative of the pricing structure, but a t-shirt for £500? Its a bit rough!” So, instead, for SS10 we focused on immaterial luxury, which in our times must mean time and space to stop, meditate, find a manifestation of our spirituality.

Jonny’s immediate idea was to work with crystals, recognizing their perceived ‘healing’ properties. “We used Swarovski crystals as small stars on the collection in different colours and sizes,” all of which feature on pieces in specific positions, representing pressure points around the body. Working with fabulous crystals obviously affects the cutting and shape of the pieces, “you want transparency, you want long lengths, you want draping, you want sheerness”. And that’s really what you get with this collection. Soft, yet without vulnerability. Confident without being confrontational. The modern Acne woman is the epitome of strength and spirituality and its evident in the collaboration with jewellery designer, Husam El Odeh. Inspired somewhat by Joan Of Arc, El Odeh embellished washed out jeans with beautiful silver ‘shin pads’, while tightly fitted jackets benefited from silver shoulder and elbow additions. It’s something of a departure for Acne, experimental even, but it works. And experimental is a word that seems to be increasingly synonymous with Acne. They push boundaries with their multi-disciplinary approach, and their fearless collaborations. As Jonny himself puts it, “I think we are successful because we’re a bit odd.”

Couldn’t have put it better myself!

New Yorkers who used to stalk the Barney’s Co-Op denim section for Acne tube jeans can now breathe a little easier in, well, their high-waisted jeans—the Swedish sensation has finally landed stateside with their first U.S. boutique. The store opened last week in Soho at 10 Greene Street between Canal and Grand (R.I.P. the Cloak boutique). Known mostly in these parts for their desirable denim, the label actually encompasses an entire range of clothing and shoes. And, in fact, the label isn’t just a label, it’s a collective, with arms in film, media and publishing. So, in addition to a new pair of jeans, a super-soft jersey tee and a pair of Nylite sneakers (part of their collaboration with Tretorn), you can also pick up a copy of Acne Paper, the company’s biannual, large-format, coffee table magazine.

Acne’s studio profile includes outposts in Stockholm, Berlin and Vienna, and the opening of the Soho studio coincides with its first French location, in Paris, naturallement. The Parisian store is located within the intimate shopping arcade inside the Jardin du Palais Royal, and counts Marc Jacobs and Didier Ludot as neighbors. While all the studios are representative of the overall concept of the brand, each one has a separate identity. In Paris, the grandeur and finery of the Palais are reflected in the airy space, while the Soho atelier’s small scale injects a more intimate feel into the experience. The entrance into the New York retail landscape, and the expansion into France, are both part of creative director Jonny Johansson’s overall goal to build the identity of the brand well beyond dungarees.

Our friends at Acne have been pleased to spy some very well known faces (and bodies) sporting pieces from their own collections lately.

At the recent London Fashion Week, model and “best dressed” list regular Alexa Chung sported Acne’s ‘Soldier’ denim shirt. Sitting front row at the House of Holland show with Pixie Geldof, Chung kept to her signature cool style by wearing the piece that is actually part of Acne’s men’s line.

While most designers were showing their Autumn/Winter collections at LMFF this week, Acne treated us to a glimpse into the future. The collection featured light tailored blazers, cropped shorts, full skirts with tulle, trenches and hints of navy and beige. We spoke to their delightful brand manager, Nalla McMullen, about why we get this sneak preview and what this new collection is all about.

Known primarily for their fashion pieces, cult-label Acne also have a tendency to extend their wings in other creative outlets. Rather than simply create a lookbook each season, the label often creates cinematic showcases of their new collections. If you follow fashion you may recall Australian-turned-Parisian designer Michelle Jank created a short film for their Spring Summer 2010 range.

A few months back Andreas Larssen directed a rather sensual film for Acne’s Autumn Winter 2010 collection. It is an overtly sexualised take on the love of denim and self. However, today we are more interested in being voyeuristic when it comes to fashion so we thought we’d show you their more traditional Autumn Winter presentations and behind the scenes at London Fashion Week…

Swedish fashion label Acne (which stands for “Ambition to Create Novel Expressions”) has teamed up with Madrid-based transgender fashion magazine Candy to release a line of crepe silk and denim button down shirts designed to play with proportion and size, queering the line between men’s and women’s shirts.

In a interview with Wallpaper.com, Acne founder described his collaboration with Candy‘s publisher and editor in chief, Luis Venegas, as a perfect match:

“I’m in this business to have fun and to enjoy myself, and I feel that Luis is too. This collection touches on ideas I have always played with when designing for Acne, the tension between male and female and what happens when you shift things around a bit.”
The three shirts in the collection experiment with proportion and feminine details, such as bow collars, which differentiates the line as being playful with gender, rather than unisex or gender neutral. They’re also playfully named after female characters from the 80s soap opera Dynasty: Alexis, Krystle and Sammy Jo. While this line may not solve my personal issue of how to better dress myself like Don Draper, the team-up is unique and their deliberate attempt to further blur the boundaries between men’s and women’s fashion is an interesting one.

The fashion set is afflicted by Acne at the moment: it’s all over their backs, their feet, even their coffee tables. If you don’t have any yourself yet, now’s the time to scratch the itch.

Swedish denim label Acne – it stands for Ambition to Create Novel Expressions – is the latest coup de foudre of the fashion world, an understated, under-the-radar brand that offers all the ingredients necessary for a sleek and minimal, slightly grungy, modern wardrobe. And it’s opening its largest store in London this week, a concept ‘studio’ over four floors, featuring clothing, furniture, a roof terrace, gallery and garden. “Acne has flourished on an upturn in taste for cool urbanwear, inspired in part by what models and stylists wear off-duty,” says Harriet Quick, fashion features director at Vogue.

“The design doesn’t try too hard, yet it is still trend-savvy, especially the dresses and tailoring. And there’s a deconstructed grunge element that feels right for now.” That element manifests itself in oversized aviator jackets, mannish blazers and slub vests worn with the tightest of leather leggings and jeans in all shapes and sizes, from skinny crops to carrot-shaped peg denim created for French house Lanvin last year. “If I could design something that people can have a long-term relationship with, I would be very happy,” says founder Jonny Johansson. “I want to design a garment that makes you feel stronger and more self-confident.”

Denim has been the DNA of the label since its inception in 1996, when Johansson and three friends formed a charmingly Swedish collective and gave away 100 pairs of handmade jeans to a select group of acquaintances. Stockholm boutiques were soon eager to stock the signature red-stitched unisex jeans. Having now branched out into rather prettier floral dresses, luxuriant sheepskin coats and furs and fashionably fierce wedge boots, the range never strays too far from its streetwear aesthetic, with this summer’s elegantly dressed-down jersey maxiskirts at the top of many fashion editors’ wish lists.

“It’s a collection of intriguing surprises brought together by people with a frame of reference outside mainstream fashion,” says Penny Martin, editor in chief of The Gentlewoman. “I’m forever asking people what’s that quirky item they’re wearing, and it’s always Acne.” The label’s trademark of quiet quirk is inherently Scandinavian, and it’s an aesthetic that has gained quite a bit of momentum in recent seasons – graphic, sharp tailoring and body-conscious, sci-fi pieces that are subdued without being too subtle. Acne’s autumn/winter collection this year was inspired by Star Wars, and the look is a suitable mixture of intergalactic and grunge, with patchwork fur jackets worn with dull-gold dhoti trousers and warped-looking leather pieces layered like hides over mesh and cotton vests.

But for those who want to invest in modern basics, Acne’s vast range of design-heavy separates will perk up a tired repertoire. “I come back every season and usually find something I love,” says Vogue’s executive fashion editor Emily Zak.

“It more than fill gaps in your wardrobe. Sometimes a brand captures a mood – Acne is more than a fashion brand, at a time when we all want more from fashion.” Extras come in the form of a newly launched furniture range, which will be available from the new store, and the quarterly magazine, Acne Paper, a high-end and painfully hip collection of articles and shoots from some of the biggest names in fashion. Contributors have included Carine Roitfeld, editor of French Vogue, photographer Lord Snowdon and designer Azzedine Alaïa.

“The London shop will provide a quasi-cultural platform,” says Quick, “with furniture and artisan artefacts among the collections. These elements elevate Acne from being just another jeans label.” It certainly does, thanks to a level of complexity and idiosyncrasy in the pieces that renders them recognisable without being ubiquitous. Last season’s armour jeans, with C-3POesque metallic panels running down the front of each leg were spotted on Kylie Minogue, while the label’s aviator jackets caused such a stir that the high street rushed to produce its own versions. “I focus on designing clothes that give good energy to the wearer,” says Johansson. “Our view on fashion is playful and relaxed.” Acne’s fine balance of fashion and nonchalance is calibrated just so. Little wonder then that Acne has got under the fashion pack’s skin.