Acne Studios Fall 2026
As Acne Studios quietly marks its 30th anniversary, creative director Jonny Johansson finds himself in an unfamiliar position: looking back. The designer has long insisted he prefers focusing on what comes next, but this season the past inevitably crept into the room. The show, staged during Paris Fashion Week, drew an eclectic audience including Chappell Roan and Rosanna Arquette, while Johansson mined fragments of memory from the brand’s three decade history. One particularly vivid image lingered, a reception at 10 Downing Street where former prime minister David Cameron once held court with guests while cradling his infant daughter. The moment, both political and oddly domestic, captured the kind of offbeat Britishness that informed the collection.
Johansson leaned into a gently aristocratic mood, inspired partly by his affection for the royal drama The Crown. Box pleated tweed skirts, riding suits and prim twinsets suggested a wardrobe fit for country weekends, while silk scarves trailed dramatically behind the models. Yet this being Acne Studios, the polish never remained entirely proper. Classic biker jackets appeared in shrunken pastel versions, and tailored beige blazers were styled with cable knits, floral print trousers and exaggerated pointed boots trimmed with fur. The soundtrack from Portishead underscored the slightly melancholic atmosphere, reinforcing the sense that nostalgia was being filtered through a distinctly modern lens.
There were also quieter references to the brand’s origins as a multidisciplinary creative collective. Several day dresses were printed with portraits by photographer Paul Kooiker, whose work recently appeared at the label’s gallery space in the Palais-Royal. Rather than indulging in a full retrospective, Johansson used the anniversary as a subtle recalibration, acknowledging the past while refusing to be defined by it. The result was a collection that felt confident and slightly eccentric, exactly the balance that has kept Acne Studios relevant for three decades.
