Acne Studios is celebrating its 30th anniversary by returning to where it all began: denim, friendship and a distinctly individual approach to creativity.
For the occasion, the Stockholm-based house has enlisted legendary American photographer Nan Goldin to capture its creative community in a series of intimate, unvarnished portraits. Rather than traditional campaign faces, creative director and co-founder Jonny Johansson wanted “friends, not models,” people who have contributed to the Acne Studios universe across seasons, projects and years.
The idea brings the brand’s history full circle. When Acne Studios was founded in Stockholm in 1996, Johansson and his collaborators began with just 100 pairs of raw denim jeans, distinguished by their signature red stitching, which were gifted to a circle of artists, creatives and friends. Three decades later, that same spirit of creative exchange remains central to the house.
Goldin’s photographs bring that history into focus, portraying musician Ellie Rowsell, model and photographer Guinevere Van Seenus, artist Jonathan Lyndon Chase, photographer Jordan Hemingway, actor and musician Juliette Lewis, artist Peter Schlesinger, actor and model Raya Martigny, actor Rila Fukushima and artists Sandra Poulson among others. The cast wears a mix of current pieces, archival favourites and re-editions spanning Acne Studios’ 30-year history.
“I wanted an icon, but I also wanted something very intimate and personal,” says Johansson of working with Goldin. “She does that. And with denim, which is close to you, gritty, real, it made sense.”
That sense of intimacy is particularly fitting for denim, a material that Johansson describes as a canvas that changes with the person wearing it.
“Denim personalises itself through wear – it becomes yours,” he says.
The anniversary also sees Acne Studios revisit three decades of its denim codes with a special re-edition capsule. Available from September 3, the collection includes the 1996, a slim low-rise cut; the 2009, a bootcut inspired by the era’s defining silhouettes; and a denim jacket. Each style comes in two contrasting washes, pairing pristine raw denim with versions that appear to have been shaped by years of wear.