Fastening dungaree/salopette suspenders over a tailored jacket was the styling detail that most clearly pointed to Jonny Johansson’s strategy to make a mishmash of menswear categories, spice them up with counterintuitive fabrication decisions, and see what came out in the wash.
Elsewhere the same dungarees in a gray chalk stripe were worn with those same straps hanging down beneath a raw-edged leather waistcoat lined in buffalo check wool—a sort of center-of-gravity piece for the collection that united the source material of tailoring, workwear, and rocky stuff with which Johansson was playing. Drop-shoulder oversized suiting was made meta thanks to the patterning of a bootleg Acne Studios logo—slightly “wrong”—that the designer found online and reappropriated. Other creative appropriations included loose shorts inspired by the golfing looks of his parents. A workwear jacket in taffeta, some satin dungarees, and Western jackets in fake fur were examples of the contrast between form and fabrication he was driving at. Crochet prints seemed more akin to paisleys on tie-dyed velvet pants, while the body prints on a black suit were another trippy allusion to the inside-outness of it all.
Accessories included an oversized scarf that looked a bit like a bag in a padded jersey and pointy-toe, stacked-heel shoes. In his notes Johansson said: “The global situation this past year has allowed us to look inward, renewing our commitment to an experimental studio practice. Experimentation is what I love in design. It’s like the artist’s studio or the band’s rehearsal room.” His approach to the season led to some beguiling formulations and ended with a suit cut in ripstop printed with denim as a nod to where the Acne journey began.
