The ‘domestic but alien’ furniture at the Acne Studios show

Last night, Acne Studios' SS25 took center stage at Paris Fashion Week, a show that, as explained by the brand's creative director Jonny Johansson, blended «domestic and alien». The concept behind the new collection, added the designer, was inspired by an exhibition he saw last year in London: Now I'm Home, Lips That Know My Name by American artist Jonathan Lyndon Chase. Invited to collaborate with the brand for yesterday’s presentation, the artist created interior design pieces that were used both as set decor and as seating for the guests, who were immersed in a white room. Vintage furniture, soft sculptures, and paintings, everyday objects like lamps, sinks, radios, and sofas were reinterpreted in Chase’s style, in an exploration of the public and the private that left the Acne Studios audience pleasantly surprised. Just like the works that left Johansson in awe in London a year before the show, the creations Chase made for the brand are characterized by a dynamic language, a means through which the artist explores the subjectivity and emotionality of objects, whether they belong to the social or personal sphere. The focus of Acne Studios' collection was the same: with garments that fused everyday clothing with unusual silhouettes, Johansson found inspiration in Chase's research.

Focusing special attention on the set design of a show is not a novelty for a Fashion Week event. For years now, designers and creative directors have worked to make every detail of a runway show interesting, aware of the power a striking backdrop has on communicating a new collection: this season, among the brands that hosted immersive shows were Diesel, which presented SS25 on a spread of denim rags, and Bottega Veneta, which seated the audience on animal-shaped leather armchairs. This trend fits perfectly with the brands' quest for public engagement, both online and live, but it can also represent another way for designers to have free rein. Now, backed into a corner by the luxury crisis, injecting their creativity into a show’s set instead of the clothes—as explained here, fashion is afraid to take risks—designers manage to preserve their creative personality.

With Jonathan Lyndon Chase’s installation, designer Jonny Johansson protects Acne Studios' originality. He does this by presenting a work of art that, among other things, explores a central aspect of contemporary fashion: the personality of objects. While Chase uses a visual interplay between public and private to talk about identity, queerness, and black subjectivity, Johansson explains that his new collection for Acne Studios «shows what is familiar, but distorted, where domestic furnishings are reinvented as clothing». Faced with a home turned wardrobe, celebrities seated in the front row of the show on Chase's sofas, and the show business that Fashion Week has become, one wonders if the clothes we wear are truly us, or the costume of the person we wish to be in the eyes of others.