Acne Studios Menswear Spring Summer 2024 collection

Acne Studios Menswear Spring Summer 2024 collection present at PFW

Introducing the Acne Studios take on a ‘Grand Tour’ wardrobe. Inspired by a modern-day sightseer, Acne Studios Menswear Spring Summer 2024 collection celebrates eccentric vacation style grounded in the timeless allure of well-loved denim. Embracing an unconventional spirit, the collection also includes a collaboration with innovative Swedish ceramist and glass artist Per B. Sundberg.

“For spring, I was thinking about how young men in the 17th-century would go on a ‘Grand Tour’ to see important destinations across Europe, and come home more cultivated. I took a trip to Venice. It reminded me that when you’re travelling, you choose to pack your really personal garments, and these get mixed up with new-found pieces, maybe historical garments, or merchandise you bought from a tourist shop. You experiment with what you have in your suitcase – you feel kind of free to change your identity, and to be more eccentric with your style. The other thing I was thinking about was how important denim is when you’re on your travels – it’s an axle for everything else, and you can wear it anywhere. This Acne Studios Menswear Spring Summer 2024 collection is partly based on some of my favourite vintage denim pieces from my archive that I engineered to create a trompe-l’oeil effect. It’s not a defined silhouette or a clear graphic look, it’s more layered. It’s about an accumulation of things you’ve picked up along the way,” says Jonny Johansson, Creative Director, Acne Studios.

Silhouette

Layered-up looks promote a playful silhouette. Skin-tight leggings, bicycle shorts and briefs are offset with loose-fitting velour pants, volume-infused jeans and roomy dungarees. Meanwhile scarves are a key styling element, mixing up proportions either wrapped around the torso, cinching waists or comprising floor-sweeping skirts.

Colour palette

Clashing colours create unexpectedly energizing combinations, inspired by the brightly-painted houses on the Venetian island of Burano. Inky blues, blacks and browns are juxtaposed with bold, bright shades of tomato-orange, baby-pink, and grass-green.

Fabrics

Denim stars for spring, refreshed with a variety of treatments, including a metallic coating of antique-silver. Also new is the Acne Studios jacquard-weave monogram, now appearing in a sandy-coloured denim. Elsewhere, fabrics have a lived-in feel with crinkle textures suggesting a summer spent on the road. Bleached knitwear and over-dyed or tie-dyed canvas have a homespun appeal, while technical fabrics including nylon canvas and transparent polyester comprise motorcycle jackets, an Acne Studios take on a travel raincoat, and technical trenches that have been thrown on.

Prints

Mismatched prints inspired by touristic trips project a well-travelled attitude. Repeating motifs of Venetian stars, Italian marble and vintage postcard scenes are offset with muddy boot imprints and rugged surplus-shop camouflage. Photorealistic prints of denim, leather chaps and patchwork on canvas conspire to create a trompe-l’oeil effect. A new trompe-l’oeil Floragatan 13 print on a 1980s-inspired 100 Swedish Kroner bill appears on denim as a branding patch. Meanwhile, a series of distorted prints that mimic the glass works of the artist Per B. Sundberg extend the off-beat mood.

Collaboration with Per B. Sundberg: Art for Acne Studios

Acne Studios collaborates with innovative Swedish ceramist and glass artist Per B. Sundberg on eclectic prints and jewellery for Acne Studios SS24 Menswear collection. The Stockholm-based artist is best known for his experimental approach to materials and for his provocative themes, with burlesque works characterised by a non-conformist attitude.

For his collaboration with Acne Studios, Sundberg transposes his pioneering practice of embedding ceramic pieces in glass to fabric. His collages of kitsch curios and figurines appear as distorted prints on glossy materials intended to mimic the shiny appearance of glass, comprising silk scarves; loose-fitting shirts, shorts and pants; shopper bags and a hard-shell, cross-body clutch bag. Elsewhere, prints based on his signature skull artworks appear on wool sweaters and T-shirts, while miniature hairy skulls are the dominant motif for trinket-like jewellery.

“I was reminded of Per B. Sundberg’s glass works while visiting glass factories on Murano, so I got in touch with him – I have known about his work for so long and have always wanted to collaborate with him. There is something humorous and kitschy about what he does, and yet very serious. He is an enormously talented craftsman,” says Jonny Johansson.

Graphics

Acne Studios introduces a new logo, the ‘Logogram’ for Acne Studios Menswear Spring Summer 2024 collection. Inspired by the peace symbol, the anarchist symbol and the Yin-Yang symbol, the logo features the AS initials inside a circle. It appears embossed on velour tracksuits, and adorns leggings, bicycle shorts, shirting and loose-weave knitwear. Meanwhile a distorted Acne Studios logotype takes the form of metal-buckle belts and appears embossed on bags and printed on shoes.

Accessories

Accessories take the form of collected curios. Lanyards are laden with trinkets and keys, as though acquired on vacation. Rhinestone-embellished chain-link necklaces and bracelets mingle with woven friendship bracelets mimicking those picked up on a market stall. An Acne Studios take on the tourist’s baseball cap is embroidered with the logo. And the artist Per B Sundberg develops earrings and rings that explore his recurring obsession with skulls.

Footwear

Shoes traverse all travel itineraries, characterized by hybrid details. Sun-bleached flip flops with sporty lace-up straps are destined for the beach, while leather cowboy boots and rubber rain boots walk the tourist trail. Boxing boots come with a pointed cowboy-boot toe, appearing alongside gymnastic shoes and clogs. Elsewhere derbies come with Venetian star-adorned soles.

Bags

The Musubi style is reworked in a new elongated shape, trimmed with studs. In addition, the Acne Studios jacquard-weave monogram now comes in denim, and is trimmed with pink snakeskin detailing to comprise a shoulder bag as well as a shopper/backpack hybrid.