by Marian Pălie

But passion unaccompanied by a bit of luck can fail spec­tacularly. The mobility of cul­tural poles, the explosion of communication means and especial­ly the fall of the Anglo-Saxon culture directed everyone`s attention to what we call today the Scandinavian culture. Around the 2000`s, the cold air of the Nor­dic cultural cyclone has boomed and spread every­where (notably in architecture, music, cinematography, design of objects). Suddenly, the tempera­ture, but especially the temperament – sometimes grasped with difficulty by Southern people – was embraced in the most sub-tropical countries.

“In”, but especially “through” this context, Acne created for itself an iconoclastic image; quality became its standard, the creator imposed a new beauty marker and produced some seducing associations (mostly between fashion and important cultural figures). This cocktail of elements promptly announced the world wide success Acne was about to taste soon enough. This new philosophy was completely new for those times, yet it received favorable reviews in Wallpaper and Vogue Paris – so from that moment on everything seemed much simpler. And indeed it was. Shortly after, Acne Studio opened up like an umbrella and developed Acne Film, Acne Advertising, Acne Digital, Acne Production, Acne JR and Acne Play.

The Acne story began in Stockholm but it was quickly continued in Paris. Here, twice a year, the men`s and women`s collections are presented at Paris Fashion Week with one success after another. Once you seduce Paris, the world is yours – and this is no exaggeration. Yet, the opening of stores in the main cultural capitals of the world: Paris, London, New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, Antwerp, Tokyo, Osaka, Hong Kong, Sydney, Amster­dam, Seoul, Copenhagen transforms success into a certainty. Having an in­novative design, one that could graciously compete with a contemporary art museum, the Acne stores are a destination for any cool hunter around the globe who loves multi-disciplinary art.

Acne Paper, their bi-annual image conveyer (a catalogue – magazine) has won the hearts of print lovers and some of their contributors are per­sonalities like Carine Roitfeld, Noam Chomsky, David Lynch, Lord Snowdon, Azzedine Alaia, Mario Testino, Sarah Moon, Tilda Swinton and Paolo Roversi.

Acne Studios has collaborated with other creative industries for some limited editions products, such as: Bianchi Bicycles for producing bicycles, the Swedish designer Carl Malmsten for interior design objects, the famous couture house Lanvin, the artist Katerina Jebb for creating art installations and Candy magazine for transsexual clothing.

All these elements have translated Acne into a success story, one that had a 120 million dollar turnover at the end of 2013. Hence, Jonny Johans­son seems to be continuing his story with the adage hidden in Acne`s five letters: “Ambition to Create Novel Expressions”.