Jonny Johansson indulged his personal passions as he went about gestating this Acne collection. It started with his growing yen for surfing, an intoxication stirred on the wind-raised waves near his summer house, which formerly belonged to Ingmar Bergman. Through surfing, he came across Robin Kegel, a Californian-born, Biarritz-based surfer who cuts his own hair and shapes his own boards. Kegel s longboard decals provided the prints that flickered in and out of this show, while the rest of it—especially the platforms—arrived via Johansson s guitar playing and his fondness for the New York Dolls. The only thing preventing the connection between Kegel and the Dolls feeling utterly arbitrary was Johansson s keenness on both. Kegel s hairstyle, all blunt-scissored terraces of copper, worked well on the models wigs. The colors—pistachio, pink, and yellow—were an adroit mix of surf and pre-punk. With its Johnny Thunders platforms, ribbed cashmere dresses, and romper suits, the collection tapped into menswear s current fixation with gender fluidity—especially when teamed with the brand s as-yet-unchristened man bag.
