Jonny Johansson invited showgoers to his sunken living room set for the Acne Studios runway show, where the throwback design with abstract animal print faux-fur upholstery, which will be upcycled next season, set the tone for a nostalgic collection.
“I wanted to play with things that felt familiar,” he said backstage, recalling that his introduction to fashion was through altering a jacket his mom bought for him when he was a teenager to try to make it look more cool.
“A lot of people want to have something personal, something that says ‘I’m real,'” he said of the younger generation’s love of DIY and creative self-expression. “And in fashion, sometimes we forgot the hand,” he added of the appeal of the personal touch, which has influenced several collections this season, including Marni in Milan and Eckhaus Latta in New York.
On the runway, that translated into holey, draped sweater dresses and bedazzled sock boots, dip-dye slipdresses, hyper high-waisted paper bag waist maxiskirts, supersized leather blazers and pants painted to look like jeans.
Draped fringe dresses and pants looks, with ripped T-shirts over top, looked cool, as did a patchwork denim ballgown, not seen on the runway since the early Aughts.
But as a whole, the collection felt a bit melancholy and in need of more polish and spark.
That said, one can hardly blame Johansson for wanting to hibernate in one of the floral duvet coats and pairs of puffer house shoes he showed. The world is pretty dark. But the brand announced on its seating cards that it has donating 100,000 Swedish krona to the war in Ukraine, and has ceased all trading in Russia as of Monday. And doing good always looks good.