Protecting design at any cost, interview with Jonny Johansson

When you arrive in Stockholm, one of the first places everyone recommends you go to is the Acne Studios store at Norrmalmstorg 2, in what was once the bank where August 23, 1973, Jan-Erik Olsson pulled off the robbery of the Sveriges Kreditbanken headquarters, thus giving rise to the so-called Stockholm Syndrome. There, in that location somewhere between retail space and place of worship, the status achieved by Acne Studios twenty-six years after its inception is expressed to the fullest. Originally an acronym for Associated Computer Nerd Enterprises, later to become Ambition to Create Novel Expressions, the founding fathers of this Swedish prodigy are Mats Johansson, Jesper Kouthoofd, Tomas Skoging, and Jonny Johansson. It is Johansson, the brand's creative director, whom I met in the Acne Studios HQ at Floragatan 13, once the Czechoslovakian embassy and now among the fashion industry's most envied locations. Patagonia sweater, ripped jeans, and a pair of rubber boots, I meet Jonny on the top floor of the building, in what was once the ambassador's private office and now, after years of construction, has become an extension of Acne Studios. The Brutalist-style building encapsulates the entire soul of the brand, from the bookstore to the canteen - once the ambassador's cinema and now furnished with two sculptures by Helmut Lang - each space tells the soul of Acne Studios.

«I have no idea how it happened,» Jonny tells me when I ask him how it was possible to make Acne Studios a global brand while leaving its original Swedish brand soul intact. «If you ask me about the DNA of the brand I couldn't explain it, I want it to be a mystery to me as well. I always put design first, because that's what creates business in the end and that's why it has to be protected. That's what I've been doing for twenty-six years, protecting design. There are companies where the buyers tell the designers what to do. Design in its purest form is like inventing, even if it's just a pair of pants with two legs. Which I prefer to those with three,» he says with a laugh. This desire to preserve design has always been the driving force behind Acne Studios, genuinely attached to its Swedish roots, as evidenced by its collaboration with Kero, a family-owned brand founded in 1929 and based in Sattajärvi, Lapland. In the middle of nowhere, some would say. «It's a small company where the aunt makes the sole of the shoe,» Jonny explains, not going so far from reality. Entirely handmade at the Kero location, the beak shoes at the center of the collaboration are rooted in the history of the area and the nomadic Sami people. «They are very beautiful in their original version," Jonny explains. "But looking at your shoes they are 'chunky' while these are thin. We reconstructed them trying to make them more modern, but trying to stay true to the original.»

The idea of collaboration itself takes on a different meaning when applied to Acne Studios, which as a fashion house with a multidisciplinary character has always ranged in its partnerships, choosing in some cases Swedish brands and companies - as in the case of Fjällräven in 2018 - or artists close to the spirit of Acne Studios - as in the case of Grant Levy-Lucero or William Wegman. A careful choice then, which Jonny Johansson explained with what could be called a provocation: «If someone from Gucci asked me to collaborate I wouldn't know what to answer. I like Gucci, but I don't think we would have much to offer them. With Lanvin, it had been different. First of all, they had come to us,» he explains, referring to the collaboration between Lanvin and Acne Studios in 2009. «Also, Jeanne Lanvin used to collaborate in the '20s and '30s, it was something in the history of the brand. I mean, I'm not saying no to anybody, but I don't think we could do it with a brand like Gucci. They're already pretty good on their own.» But if there is anything Acne Studios manages to offer through its design, it is the idea of honest, adherent fashion used in many cases as a primary source of inspiration.

This a concept that Jonny Johansson has talked about several times over time and returned to again during our chat. «The concept of honesty is nothing but my way of working. The show we did in Paris is a very good example of that. Mattias - CEO of the brand - wanted to find a way to celebrate ten years since our first show in Paris, but I didn't want it to be something self-celebratory. It's ridiculous when people celebrate themselves. But then someone I work with, Leopold Duchemin, got married, and on Instagram I was able to follow the whole wedding. I think a moment like that represents an iconic celebration that can embody a great deal of tension and conflict. That was something that was happening to me and I decided to use it in my work. That's what honesty means to me.» So if there is anything we can be sure of, it is the founding values on which the brand is based, in many ways unique because of the freedom is given by the independence it can enjoy. In addition to the aforementioned "honesty," the concept of "freedom" is part of the brand's strengths. As CEO Mattias Magnusson also confirmed to me a few nights later. But there is no freedom without risk, as a colleague suggests by asking, «Haven't you ever been afraid of going out of fashion?» «It's a double-edged sword,» Johansson replies almost seraphically. «You want to be accepted, but you also want to be unique. If you're part of this world you want to be loved but also to feel special.» If feeling special is the ultimate goal, we could say without much ado that Acne Studios has succeeded perfectly in its goal, ideally charting a course that many other brands should aspire to.