Acne Studios’ cigar salon runway set is decorated with Pacifico Silano’s homoerotic ‘objects of desire’

Acne Studios doesn’t have a shiny new creative director to debut in Paris, unlike several other houses, but the Stockholm-based brand still has plenty still to celebrate. Next year (2026) will mark 30 years since the label was co-founded by Jonny Johansson, who has steadily guided the brand with a holistic approach shaped by his scattered interests in art, architecture and contemporary culture. Celebrating the staying power of this multifaceted vision, today he stages his S/S 2026 show inside the 13th-century Gothic church Collège des Bernardins in Paris’ 5th arrondissement. True to form, Acne Studios has once again looked beyond fashion’s tight circles to collaborate with an unexpected artist on the show’s set (past collaborators include Jonathan Lyndon Chase and Lukas Gschwandtner).

This season, the label turned to Brooklyn-based artist Pacifico Silano for the job. Well-regarded in New York’s art scene but little-known on a global stage (with only a few thousand Instagram followers), Silano creates languidly homoerotic works from archival printed matter dating between the Stonewall riots and the height of the Aids crisis. Two facts of his youth have shaped his practice. His parents owned an adult novelty store called Undercover Pleasures in the 2000s, and so niche pornographic titles were somewhat a part of life growing up. However, it was when Silano’s uncle died of an Aids-related illness when he was a young child – a loss his family largely avoided discussing – that he became deeply engaged with America’s mishandling of the Aids epidemic, using his gesturally fragmented work to trace threads of longing, loss and queer legacy left in its wake.

Acne Studios S/S 2026 runway set, a collaboration with artist Pacifico Silano

Working from his Brooklyn studio, in practice this sees Silano re-photograph forgotten 1970s and 1980s ephemera and gay erotica, ignoring explicit content to hone in on small details, such as gym weights on a floor or skin exposed beneath unbuttoned denim. Weaving collective histories into a colour-saturated new present, the resulting works form suggestive meditations on desire, erasure, and the fragility of queer history in print culture. For Acne Studios, the artist has drawn upon his archive alongside newly created works, which are suspended through the stony arches of the church, creating an atmosphere that evokes the moody intimacy of a ‘cigar salon’.

‘This is my first time working with Acne Studios and also my first time dipping a toe in the fashion world,’ he says. ‘Acne Studios has this incredible ability to take something familiar and make it feel radical again, whether it’s denim, tailoring, or a silhouette. That really resonates with my own process because I’m always asking, how can I reframe what already exists so it speaks to this moment? Acne Studios doesn’t treat fashion as just clothing. It’s part of a bigger cultural conversation – about art, identity, and expression. That’s exactly how I approach my work.’

While the artist’s practice is image-based, the challenge of translating his work into a show setting wasn’t as difficult as one might think. ‘I really like to think of photographs as objects of desire, I’m always considering how they can take up physical space,’ he explains. ‘I have been wanting to do an installation of my work with this beautiful dark wood panelling from the 1970s for a couple of years now but couldn’t find the right venue for it. During our first meeting, Acne Studios shared some references that were this exact idea I had been dreaming of. It felt like kismet, like I was supposed to do this with them.’

The artist’s work sets a stage for an S/S 2026 collection that is, the brand says, an exercise in ‘breaking down archetypes’. Grounded in Acne Studios’ core of denim and functional outerwear, this season boundaries between men’s and womenswear wardrobes are blurred to propose a ‘strong, androgyne energy’. Shuffling and twisting wardrobe classics, transposed suit jackets are worn with sharp uniform shirts; lumberjack flannels are tucked into gauzy slip skirts; and couture lace is sliced and stitched into second-skin shapes that play with the meaning of precious materials. ‘Strong, playful, poised and most of all free, these women have been here all along,’ said the brand. ‘Only now, as Acne Studios advances towards its 30th year, they are leading us into the next chapter.’

Silano wanted to create a set that reflected the collection’s states of toughness and tenderness. He hung fabric samples on the walls of his studio and began collaging new works inspired by their eclectic textures and hues, printing these new scenes onto aluminium panels to be installed in Paris. ‘I wanted to create works that balanced stereotypical masculine depictions with more quiet, sensitive and evocative imagery,’ he explains. ‘They might seem contradictory at first glance, but the longer you spend with these works the more you see how they feed off one another.’

With the brand’s birthday approaching, Johansson has been thinking not so much about clothes but – as ever with the unconventional designer – about the constellation of thinkers and creatives who have inspired him through the years. ‘I’ve always felt that creativity is perhaps about being able to see the world in a way you didn’t realise could be seen,’ he said. ‘There are people who can do that to you – they make the world feel different, they stand out and tell you a new story.’

Brought to life with Johansson’s studio team, musical contributions from Robyn and Yung Lean, and Silano’s evocative world-building, the S/S 2026 show is a celebration of this hive of interdisciplinary creation that has long fuelled Acne Studios as it steps into the next decade. ‘This has been an incredible learning experience for me,’ says Silano. ‘It’s made me reinvestigate my archive and my artistic practice through a new lens. I’m so used to working alone in my studio, doing everything myself. To be in dialogue with the Acne Studios team and to create this visual experience together has been incredible.’

Stay tuned for live coverage of Paris Fashion Week S/S 2026