Step inside Acne Studios’ pink-hued Tokyo flagship: ‘fashion is supposed to be fun’

Afternoon sun cuts across minimalist lines of textured stone, angular display cases and hovering seats, all in very modern shades of pink. There is no mistaking the presence of Swedish fashion label Acne Studios and the telltale cool of its signature shade in the heart of Tokyo’s Aoyama district, where it recently opened its new Japanese flagship.

Clean-lined, monolithic, flooded with light – and instantly recognisable as part of the Acne Studios cosmos – the new store spans a prime corner spot on Omotesando, a longtime architectural playground (it’s next to Prada’s bubble façade, designed by Herzog & de Meuron). Here, Acne Studios expresses its playful, modern philosophy through a three-level space brought to life by the company’s founder and creative director, Jonny Johansson, alongside regular collaborator, Stockholm-based studio Halleroed.

Inside Acne Studios’ Tokyo flagship

The word ‘garage’ doesn’t often feature in the Omotesando luxury lexicon, yet this was the conceptual starting point for Johansson, who was inspired by the idea of a structurally open space with a technical edge. ‘I loved the idea of a little house in Aoyama,’ says Johansson. ‘When they tore down the original building, I looked at its skeleton and thought, actually, let’s turn it inside out – like when you see a garage. I wanted to keep the empty skeleton and have as much glass as possible, so you feel that you’re both inside and outside in Aoyama.’

This idea is mirrored in the stone and glass façade that allows passers-by to see in to the interiors, plus the vast basement level space, with its original lift shaft feature and Japanese plaster walls. Not to forget the softly-textured pink granite stone, which connects spaces both inside and out, flowing seamlessly across floors, walls and – a highlight – two staircases, high and airy, with cleanly minimalist structural lines and smoothly indented handrails.

The aim was to evoke a sense of pink that was not ‘banal’ or ‘naïve’, according to Halleroed co-founder Ruxandra Halleröd. ‘Pink, when painted on the wall, can be quite flat; it’s easy to get tired of it,’ she says. ‘So we started looking at pink as texture and material. That’s how we ended up, after lots of tries, with a granite that becomes more pink when you flame it. People can be quite sensitive to the meaning of pink. It can be girlish or it can be very mature. But the Acne Studios pink is a little vague, which makes it better – I see it more as a pop colour than feminine.’

The store’s atmosphere is rooted further in reflective metal accents, angled mirrors and the dynamism of stainless steel clothing hangers sharply suspended from the ceiling. Deepening the mix is a playful scattering of one-of-a-kind creative touches by longstanding Acne Studios collaborators, including a series of pieces by British designer Max Lamb, ranging from shiny soft leather seats that appear to grow out of walls to tufted carpets and ‘Blob’ chairs in hand-dyed yarns.

Dozens of sharply poetic custom strip-lighting are scattered across ceilings, alongside lit lines cut into metal displays and hangers, as imagined by designer Benoit Lalloz. Surrealist mannequins created by artist Daniel Silver add a further creative layer. According to Ruxandra, key to the atmosphere is the idea of contrasts. ‘Tokyo has a lot of contrasts – the very high tech with the old, and so on,’ she says. ‘This is something we tried to evoke here. The building is very straight with hard materials, and the furniture is very irregular and shiny and a big contrast with the space. It’s also all a little bit unexpected.’ Halleroed co-founder Christian Halleröd adds, ‘Japan is a huge inspiration for us – the quality level and the craftsmanship. Everything starts in Japan.’

One standout Japanese presence is a series of candy-bright ceramic vessels created by artist Takuro Kuwata to mark the store’s opening. An accompanying series of inventive products designed in collaboration with Kuwata includes rainbow reimaginings of the brand’s ‘Camero’ bag and trompe l’œil denim jeans. For Johansson, the new Aoyama store (which replaces their former shop on a nearby backstreet) marks the culmination of a long love affair with Japan, a source of creative inspiration, as well as a key business hub for the brand.

‘I first visited when I was about 18 and I’ve probably been here about 30 times,’ he says. ‘My dad also sailed from Sweden to Japan in the 1960s. It was almost a myth in our family, everything that he told us about Japan, so I have a long relationship with it.’ He adds, ‘We are from a minimalist country, but we are maximalist in the sense that we like to play. Fashion is supposed to be fun. Sometimes luxury can be very excluding. That is what we don’t want to be.’

A version of this story appears in the September 2025 Style Issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today