Selfie reflection: Acne Studios takes an academic approach to its A/W 2017 men’s presentation

Acne Studios A/W 2017.

(Image credit: Jason Lloyd-Evans)

published 22 January 2017

Acne Studios (opens in new tab)’ Jonny Johansson is sat at the back of the vast amphitheatre inside the Faculté de Pharmacie of Paris Descartes University. He’s deep in thought. Georges Papazoff, a teacher of art history, is in the middle of delivering a four-part lecture, which explores the connection between self-portraiture and the selfie. But Johansson hasn’t gone back to college; the lecture is part of his brand’s A/W 2017 menswear presentation.

‘This is a bit of a statement for me to do this,’ Johansson says. ‘I felt a panic last season because everybody is doing so much and I wanted to slow things down. This is about trying to give something that’s not loud.’ Using images from Ai Weiwei and Velázquez to Lucian Freud and Yves Klein, Papazoff explains that pictures, photographs and images deal with human thinking. And so too does fashion.

Johansson had been in conversation about this staging for almost a year with lighting designer and show producer Thierry Dreyfus. ‘Jonny and I always think about how can we bring humour into the presentation,’ Dreyfus said backstage. ‘How can we bring something nearer to the people and for us to not be seen but still evident?’

Models wearing pink and red woolen sweater — Acne Studios A/W 2017.

Models standing by facing each other — Acne Studios A/W 2017.

Models posing for photography — Acne Studios A/W 2017.

3 Models posing for photography — Acne Studios A/W 2017.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Acne Studios website (opens in new tab)

TOPICS

London based writer Dal Chodha is editor-in-chief of Archivist Addendum — a publishing project that explores the gap between fashion editorial and academe. He writes for various international titles and journals on fashion, art and culture and is a contributing editor at Wallpaper*. Chodha has been working in academic institutions for more than a decade and is Stage 1 Leader of the BA Fashion Communication and Promotion course at Central Saint Martins. In 2020 he published his first book SHOW NOTES, an original hybrid of journalism, poetry and provocation.