“Sometimes there’s a lot of kerfuffle,” said Jonny Johansson before this show: “Ideas, ideas, ideas—spinning on ideas, but not really directing.” That’s not to say there weren’t concepts in a collection that collided construction sites with that moment when the lights come up as the club closes—spaces of transition—and garnished the results with the feminocentric archeology of artist Katerina Jebb. But there was plenty of execution too in this engaging Acne show. And it all went back to denim.
“It’s always been the most important product, and I feel strongly about it. But I also felt embarrassed—‘it’s not real fashion’—and I wanted to be a ‘real designer,’ if that makes sense,” said Johansson. Today he moved on from those early collection hoodoos by going back to make runway reclamation of the five pocket pant in denim that was the foundation of Acne’s success. Its imprint was evident on the back of a flying-waist gray skirt, or under a layer of chalky cracked plaster, or at the waist of a heat-pressed red leather coat. A lace trucker jacket was similarly layered in plaster, as were denim miniskirts. Denim was under renovation and restoration.
Elsewhere scanned relics from Jebb’s suite “Physical Evidence of a Woman” (a pair of false eyelashes, some chaotically discarded pantyhose) were placed on garments as imprinted fossils of femininity. Tufts of feather sprouted from a ribbed jersey dress and vest, a trench was lumpily cut to look as if done up in the dark, and tulle pom-poms were dotted in disarray across sheer plain and checked dresses.
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