9 posts tagged "Jonny Johansson"
Evening Edition: Acne Tries A Tux
Acne’s roots are in casual sportswear and jeans, but over the course of several seasons, the Swedish label has been refining its tailoring. Now a new capsule collection, developed with (and to be sold exclusively on) MrPorter.com, pushes it farther than it has ever gone before: for the first time, into a developed collection of full-on eveningwear. The new capsule, which includes tuxedo jackets and trousers, jacquard trousers and cummerbunds, bib-front shirts, an evening overcoat, bowties, and shoes, launches November 13. (The company, undeterred by New York’s nor’easter, is celebrating with a dinner this evening.) “I like the tuxedo, it’s a feminine uniform for men,” Acne’s Jonny Johansson tells Style.com. “Let’s think of it as a classic little black dress for men. If I could, I would use the word ‘elegant’ to describe the man’s tuxedo—everything becomes elegant in a way.” Even—in a twist harking back to those casual roots—a tuxedo T-shirt, also on offer.
Nice Day For A White Denim
What’s old is new again. And at Acne, the old is coming back in white. Jonny Johansson and his team scoured more than ten collections from the Acne archive for a new capsule collection of reissues hitting label stores this Monday. Tops, skirts, dresses, shoes, and accessories are all back from the vault in new, white versions. Why? “I designed an apartment back in the nineties on Park Avenue,” Johansson tells Style.com, “with one room as the Yoko and John Lennon white room. It has been floating around my head for a while, this whole ‘white-out process.’ It finally surfaced and I was like, yes, let’s do a collection.” With Memorial Day and the traditional season of white garb on its way, we wondered, does Johansson have any rules for how to wear it? “Just keep your white pieces dirty—then you know you are having fun,” he says. One caveat: “No sex in the grass wearing white; it gives it away.”
Acne Drives Into Paris
Acne opened its second Paris store Tuesday on rue Froissart in the 3rd arrondissement, but founder Jonny Johansson remained in a Swedish, not Gallic, mood. “I wanted to do something with a contemporary Stockholm vibe, because that’s where we’re from and it’s been on my mind a lot lately,” he said about the new shop. “When you walk in, you’re not sure if it’s a garage or a club.” (Understandably so—the space used to be a garage.)
Johansson and Acne’s in-house architect Andreas Fornell transformed the formerly oil-stained space (which Johansson found two years years ago while walking around Paris), making sure to preserve the concrete shell and adding a sleek chrome, marble, and beige-carpeted interior with suspended LED strip lighting. As a set piece, he installed a 650-kilo antique marble nude, which artist Daniel Silver dragged from Italy to London.
The Acne team came to Paris en masse to toast the opening and to celebrate with a midnight supper at Lapérouse, with friends Roxane Mesquida, Irina Lazareanu, Gaia Repossi, and Kenzo’s Carol Lim and Humberto Leon. Acne Paper‘s Thomas Persson showed up with a surprise guest, singer Jonny Woo from London, who performed a short set featuring shock-and-awe versions of the Doors’ “Tell All the People” and Nina Simone’s “Gin House Blues.”
Paris is only the latest stop for Acne, which already owns 30 stores worldwide; its next will open in New York (the city’s second) in 2012. In the meantime, Johansson has been busy planning Acne’s Fall men’s show in January, which will be shown in—sense a theme?—a Paris garage.
The Denim Jacket:
A Blast From The Past Or Present Perfect?
It’s time to dust off your jean jacket. Favored by the likes of Ruby Aldridge, Liu Wen, and Hanne Gaby Odiele, the denim staple is making a bid to replace the leather bomber as model-off-duty topper of choice. This summer, bona fide celebs (Cameron Diaz) and burgeoning trendsetters (Pippa Middleton) alike have been spotted layering snug, faded ones over feminine looks for an edgy update. Speaking of edgy, we loved the acid-wash, pharaoh-embellished number that Sleigh Bells’ Alexis Krauss wore to the Sasquatch festival this May. Same goes for Jonny Johansson’s heavily deconstructed indigo style from Acne’s Resort collection.
CLICK FOR A SLIDESHOW, and let us know what you think about the denim jacket comeback.
Next Up For The Man Who Put Franco In Drag? Justin Bieber
If you hadn’t heard of Candy magazine, Luis Venegas’ salute to “transversal” style, its recent cover with James Franco in full drag likely put it on your radar. For that one, Venegas admitted, “I have to give all the credit to Terry Richardson and his team.” But Venegas’ other collaborators are no less distinguished: Bruce Weber, Steven Meisel, Ellen von Unwerth, and Daria Werbovy have all pitched in. Why? “So many people, transgender or not, are reading it,” the Spaniard explained. “It’s like, well, you don’t have to play football to like watching it, no?”
Venegas (left, with Jodie Harsh) was in London for a party celebrating Candy‘s collaboration with Acne on a line of limited-edition shirts. “A classic American cowboy shirt—very masculine, very denim, but with some female details,” he said. Acne’s Jonny Johansson, Erdem Moralioglu, Jonathan Saunders, and more turned out to have a look. But more than fashion, it was Candy‘s next cover star that was the hot topic. “Well, it’s a fantasy, but I would love to have Justin Bieber on the cover,” Venegas said. “I mean, everyone says that he looks like a 14-year-old lesbian anyway, so how perfect would that be?” Continue Reading “Next Up For The Man Who Put Franco In Drag? Justin Bieber” »