By Jorgia Burke
Youth is fleeting by nature. Try as we may to clench it in the palm of our hands and claw onto jeunesse as it breaches the cusp of maturity, we are only enamoured by the beauty of youth in retrospect. This sartorial banquet functions as somewhat of a retrospective as Jonny Johansson takes the legacy of Stockholm’s golden child and cements it in the language of youth–breathing truth into the hope that our legacy is not a fixture, yet harnesses the ability to morph when permitted.
Turning 30 this year, Johansson sought to pay homage to the upbringing of Acne Studios whilst tapping a new vein, reflecting how taste matures, and then makes a return back to the grass roots of youth bearing time’s imprint. Casting an eye over to the past, this Fall/Winter menswear collection champions relics that make up the backbone of a wardrobe which is steeped in the passage of time. This concept is executed primarily through mediums of denim and leather, which reside at the crux of the season. “When enough of these pieces exist and penetrate sub-cultures and high society alike, they eventually gain their own kind of heritage and become established like other aspects of menswear,” Johansson explained.
In an era defined by sanitisation of our consumptive desires, imperfection in the contemporary wardrobe is now a highly coveted symbol–a shorthand for authenticity, nostalgia and rarity. Sinking his teeth into this ethos, Johansson refuses to let our mind wander too far from the visual of patina, alluding to lived experience through our clothes. With said aim in mind, Johansson revived the all-too familiar ‘96 straight leg jean–heel drag and rips included–in washes that reflect age. Naturally, leather was approached with a parallel logic, injected with a sense of longevity and designed to build character. Johansson approaches these materials with an objective of participation over preservation–and positions them as materials intended to be lived in.
Describing the collection as a consideration of how a “younger generation absorbs and reinterprets menswear codes”, the byproduct of Johansson’s intent oscillates between tropes of ‘90s grunge with ‘70s tenderness. The pendulum of tailoring swings to that of elegance, where formality is interrupted by the ease of youth. Within the ilk of tailoring, Johansson constructed hugging double-breasted blazers coupled with flared trousers, gesturing to the epoche of the ‘70s. Silk foulards were warmly welcomed, peeping over woolcoats to cleanse the viewer’s textural palette whilst cashmere was layered with argyle that reads as deliberately flawed.
Signature Acne codes of trompe l’oeil were not abandoned, yet simply reimagined. Johansson pushed the viewer to fall back on their judgement by collapsing illusion and reality through blending collaged garments and visible repairs. Accessories thematically grounded the collection, evoking lived-in and well-cherished hat rack items, including aviator sunglasses which carry over iterations of the ‘70s into the now, belts partnered with worn-in hardware and the notorious Camaro bag is reintroduced and punctuated in previously unseen colourways–think sage green, deep wine and baby butter yellow.
Johansson’s vision for the presentation sits at the intersection of adoration and reimagination, with each garment thoughtfully balancing retention with novelty. The collection embodies–potentially more than ever–the foundational compass of Acne to exert an ambition to create novel expressions. With the pulsation of youth running through each piece, Johansson sets to keep Stockholm’s darling, forever young.
