Keeping the mystique with Acne Studios

Looking at the bottle containing the new fragrance resulting from the collaboration between Acne Studios for Frédéric Malle, no one would expect that the pastel-hued packaging actually originated casually, from a handwritten letter in beautiful calligraphy. It was an invitation offered by Malle in person to Jonny Johansson for a meeting at Café De Flore in Paris. «Not a planned thing,» recounts Acne's creative director. He's sitting in an armchair of a Milanese hotel after a flight taken «too early,» he says, precisely for the launch of the new fragrance - «I don't like flying, and it's kind of a big event when I do,» he will confess shortly afterwards, shrugging his shoulders. Indeed, casuality is a recurring theme in Jonny's interviews, as he has built a history of successful collaborations, from publishing to product design, eventually venturing into fragrances. «I've always admired Malle's work and I've always respected his nose, I've been a customer of the brand for years. I appreciate his conceptual approach because in everything I do myself there's always an idea, a design, or if you like, a method, regardless of the type of output that comes out of it,» reveals Johansson.

Editions de Parfums by Frédéric Malle stems from a very specific ideal: to bring perfumery back to the splendour of the past, guiding the world's greatest perfumers to the peak of their art and granting them exceptional raw materials. No time limit, no marketing imposition: similarly, Acne Studios has embodied these aspects in its design since its foundation in 1996. The care in uncompromising design has allowed Johansson's personal inspirations and interest in the arts to merge with a distinctly Swedish focus on functionality. «An idea, a design, or if you like, a method» make the work of the experimental and ever-changing creative director distinctly recognisable. When I ask him how, in our collective imagination, the glitched shots of Yves Tumor's campaign and the sweatshirts with the logom logo - the emoji with the apathetic expression ironically symbolising the Swedish mood - trace back to a single creative matrix, the creative director's tone gets serious, leading to a lesson, or perhaps a revelation, not only on the concept of creativity but on the need to preserve it: «You shouldn't always explain everything. If you put too many Lego pieces or puzzle pieces, you see the entire picture and it becomes boring after a while. I don't like to think too much about things because it's better not to know. It's like with all the fashion out there: there are really, really fantastic things but if you started to look at everything closely, if you went to dinner every night with those in the industry, you'd completely lose yourself, you'd doubt yourself. Everyone must create their own personal bubble, keep the mystique.»

Frédéric Malle and Suzy Le Helley wanted to capture the spirit of Acne Studios and reveal, for the first time, its olfactory mirror, a magnetic yet comforting fragrance. Nothing too conceptual, just like Jonny, who never likes to take himself too seriously. There's a certain classicism, but with a kitsch aftertaste that bounces back against him, like mom's fabric softener and all the instinctive nostalgia it evokes, a enveloping ensemble of fresh aldehydes, flowers, peach, and vanilla: «It's very direct. You feel the softness, but there's a touch of novelty, a kind of vibration. An effect that Frédéric often reproduces: he likes new and cutting-edge things, but at the same time, he always has one foot in the classic.»

With a past as a musician and a childhood between an artist mother and a military father, Jonny grew up dreaming of success with his band. He ended up in the world of fashion, just as he landed in perfumes, without asking too many questions, focusing on the present moment and letting himself be carried away by that «desire for exploration» that still characterises every one of his designs. He discovered his love for fashion only after several years, because, just like for his garments, he «needs a few years to look at things with detachment, to understand if I really like them. Some of our creations are beautiful, others not, but even the failed ones help us take the next step towards something interesting. Nothing is definitive, so I try not to judge. Then sometimes, after a while, I look back and say to myself: we did well.» The new fragrance from Acne Studios x Frédéric Malle is a new chapter of the journey, a precious tool to unveil, at least in olfactory terms, that layer of mystery that Jonny holds tightly, like a precious cloak. But one sensation stands out clearly at the end of the interview: even if we managed to unravel the mystery, there would already be another one in store.